Verkhovna Rada Chairman Ruslan Stefanchuk on the eighth anniversary of the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 said that all war crimes committed by the Russian Federation in Ukraine must be thoroughly investigated.
According to Ukrinform, Stefanchuk said this in a Facebook post.
“Eight years ago, the Russians shot down flight MH17 in the sky over Donbas. Even then, the world saw the true face of Russia and understood that human life is worth nothing for the Russian Federation,” Stefanchuk said.
According to Stefanchuk, the aggressor did not stop and decided that they could continue killing, stage missile terror, shell cities, deliberately target shopping centers and kill civilians. “The feeling of impunity creates new crimes,” Stefanchuk said.
“Therefore, every time at meetings with our international partners, I emphasize the need to create a special criminal tribunal,” Stefanchuk said.
He said that all the horrors that Ukraine is experiencing must be given a legal assessment.
“Otherwise, the aggressor will not stop. He will decide that the dictatorship can set its own rules,” Stefanchuk said.
As reported, Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was shot down over occupied area of Donetsk region on July 17, 2014. There were 283 passengers and 15 crew members on board. All of them died. The international Joint Investigation Team reported that the plane had been shot down from a Buk missile system that belonged to the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade of the Russian Armed Forces stationed in Kursk.
The defendants are Igor Girkin (Strelkov), former Russia’s FSB colonel and former so-called defense minister of the “Donetsk People’s Republic”; Sergey Dubinskiy, general (at the time of downing – colonel) of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces; Oleg Pulatov, lieutenant colonel of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces; Ukrainian citizen Leonid Kharchenko who fought on the side of the so-called “Donetsk People’s Republic. They are considered to be involved in the transportation and combat use of a Buk missile system.
In March 2020, the District Court of The Hague began the consideration of the case over the downing of Flight MH17.
Source: All Russian war crimes in Ukraine must be thoroughly investigated - Stefanchuk
