The Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has officially held Russia responsible for the crash of flight MH17 in the sky over Donbas in 2014, the Dutch Foreign Ministry said on 12 May.
According to the ICAO Council, Russia’s actions violated the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation, namely its provision prohibiting the use of weapons against civil aircraft during flight.
In the coming weeks, the ICAO Council will consider how Russia should pay damages.
A complaint against Russia at the ICAO in March 2022 was filed by Australia and the Netherlands, whose citizens made up the majority of those killed in the crash. In June 2024, Russia announced that it was withdrawing from the complaint because it did not recognise the ICAO’s competence in the case.
A Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 aircraft was shot down over Donbass in July 2014. As a result, 298 people were killed; this plane crash is among the ten largest in terms of casualties in history.