MH17: ‘Strong indications’ Vladimir Putin approved supply of missile, say investigators

Team say Russian President made decision to give weapon to group that down Malaysia Airlines plane

The crash site of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 near the village of Hrabove in Russian-controlled Donetsk, Ukraine, in 2014. AP

Investigators looking into the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in 2014 have said there are “strong indications” Russian President Vladimir Putin approved the supply of the missile that shot down the aircraft.

“There are strong indications that the Russian President decided on supplying the Buk TELAR to the DPR (Donetsk People's Republic) separatists,” the joint investigation team from six countries said on Wednesday, citing intercepted phone calls.

But they said evidence of Mr Putin's and other Russian officials' involvement was not concrete enough to lead to a criminal conviction, and that they would end their investigation without further prosecutions.

Investigators had previously said they wanted to find out who actually crewed the BUK missile, and who was in the chain of command. The missile was allegedly brought from a Russian military base in the city of Kursk.

But they admitted that was not possible for now.

“The investigation has now reached its limit,” prosecutor Digna van Boetzelaer told a news conference in The Hague. “The findings are insufficient for the prosecution of new suspects.”

Russia has denied any involvement in the downing of the civilian airliner, which killed 298 passengers and crew.

In November, a Dutch court found three men guilty of 298 counts of murder in the downing of the flight and ordered them to pay more than €16 million ($16.5 million) in compensation.

Russians Igor Girkin and Sergei Dubinsky and Ukrainian citizen Leonid Kharchenko were found guilty of murder and intentionally causing an aircraft to crash, head judge Hendrik Steenhuis said.

Russian citizen Oleg Pulatov, who was the only defendant represented by lawyers, was found not guilty. None of the men attended the two-and-a-half-year trial.

Reading the verdict, Mr Steenhuis said that the three accused men did not directly fire the missile but supervised its deployment and its swift repatriation to Russia after the incident in the hope of averting an international outcry.

At the time the plane was shot down, Ukrainian forces were fighting Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk province.

While Russia had annexed Crimea from Ukraine in March 2014, it denied military involvement in fighting in Donetsk at that time.

But as part of the conviction of the three men in November, the Dutch court ruled that Russia had in fact had “overall control” of separatist forces in Donetsk starting from May 2014.

Prosecutors said on Wednesday they could not identify the specific soldiers responsible for firing the missile system that downed the plane, which came from Russia's 53rd brigade in Kursk.

They cited a 2014 phone intercept between Russian officials as evidence that Mr Putin's approval had been necessary before a request for equipment made by the separatists could be granted.

Russian officials even postponed a decision to send weapons to Ukrainian separatists because Mr Putin was at a D-Day commemoration in France in June 2014, the investigators said.

They played an intercepted telephone call from an adviser saying the delay was “because there is only one who makes a decision (...), the person who is currently at a summit in France”.

In addition, they played a 2017 conversation between Mr Putin himself and the Russian-appointed chief administrator of Ukraine's Luhansk province in which they discussed the military situation and a prisoner exchange.

In pictures: Investigations continue into Malaysian Airlines flight MH17

Mr Putin however benefits from immunity as head of state, making any effort to prosecute the Russian leader impossible, the investigators said.

They added that “although we speak of strong indications, the high bar of complete and conclusive evidence is not reached” in relation to Mr Putin.

The Joint Investigation Team comprises members from the Netherlands, Australia, Belgium, Malaysia and Ukraine, the countries worst affected by the crash of the doomed Boeing 777.

Piet Ploeg, who heads a foundation representing victims, said he was disappointed that the investigation had ended, but was glad prosecutors had laid out their evidence for Mr Putin's involvement.

“We can't do a lot with it, Putin can't be prosecuted, said Mr Ploeg, who lost his brother, his brother’s wife, and his nephew in the crash. “We wanted to know who was ultimately responsible and that's clear.”

All 298 passengers and crew were killed when the Boeing 777 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was hit.

The plane's shooting scattered wreckage and bodies across Ukraine's famed sunflower fields and rural settlements.

The victims came from 10 countries, including 196 Dutch, 43 Malaysians and 38 Australians.

The crash caused global outrage and sanctions were imposed on Moscow.

In 2019, international investigators released intercepted phone calls showing what they said were links between the rebels and “high-ranking” Russian officials, including Vladislav Surkov, a top aide to Mr Putin.

MH17 Trial