On July 17, 2014, 298 innocent passengers and crew, flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur aboard Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, were murdered by a Buk anti-aircraft missile launched from Russian terrorist-controlled territory in Ukraine. On June 7, 2021, the trial of four suspects -- three Russians and one Ukrainian citizen -- entered the phase during which judges heard the evidence accumulated by prosecutors.
In advance of this latest stage, relatives of the 298 MH17 victims issued a joint plea to Russia’s Vladimir Putin in June, in the name of their “children… parents, sisters, brothers,” asking him to accept his nation’s mistakes and failures. “It is sad to see a president who does not strive for true greatness for the nation he leads,” they wrote.
The Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA), the largest representative organization of Americans of Ukrainian descent, joins with international calls for Putin’s Russia to account for its role in the downing of MH17 as determined by the multinational Joint Investigation Team, led by the Netherlands, Australia, Belgium, Malaysia and Ukraine; in a rules-based international order, those responsible for unacceptable actions, such as the launching of a missile which intercepted and downed a civilian aircraft, must be held accountable. Only by establishing the truth about what happened to those 298 innocent men and women, including 20 families and 80 children, will those responsible be brought to justice. UCCA hopes that the Russian Federation will finally accept responsibility and fully cooperate with the international community so that those responsible are brought to justice.
On this solemn anniversary of the downing of flight MH17, UCCA’s thoughts and prayers go out to the victim’s families, including one American citizen, and we ask God to remember all those who perished and grant them eternal peace.
