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European Court of Human Rights Holds Russia Responsible for MH17 Downing and Ukraine Abuses

Moscow’s refusal to implement the verdicts underscores the symbolic nature of the rulings.

FILE - In this Friday, Aug. 1, 2014 file photo, Australian and Dutch investigators examine a piece of the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 plane, near the village of Hrabove, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine. The Dutch government is taking to Russia to the European Court of Human Rights for its alleged role in the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine six years ago, the foreign minister announced Friday July 10, 2020.
People demonstrate outside the European Court of Human Rights before it issues a landmark set of rulings about alleged Russian violations in Ukraine since 2014, including the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, Wednesday, July 9, 2025 in Strasbourg, eastern France. (AP Photo/Antonin Utz)
FILE - Local citizens, background, look at the site of a crashed Malaysia Airlines passenger plane near the village of Hrabove, Ukraine, on July 18, 2014. (AP Photo, File)
People hold flags at a memorial to victims of the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 plane crash during a ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of the accident, near the village of Hrabove (Grabovo) in the Donetsk region, Russian-controlled Ukraine, July 17, 2024. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko/File Photo

Overview

  • On July 9, the ECHR issued binding judgments that found Russia liable for the 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 and for systematic human rights violations in Ukraine since 2014.
  • Judges concluded that Russian forces carried out indiscriminate military attacks, summary executions, torture including rape as a weapon of war, and forced displacement in Crimea and eastern Ukraine.
  • The court reaffirmed its jurisdiction over pre-September 2022 events, determining that separatist-held regions remained under Russian authority despite Moscow’s 2022 expulsion from the Council of Europe.
  • Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected the decisions as null and void and, with no enforcement mechanism available, the verdicts are set to remain largely symbolic.
  • Ukraine and the Netherlands have additional inter-state cases pending in Strasbourg alongside nearly 10,000 individual complaints as they continue to pursue legal accountability.