The Netherlands Prosecutor’s Office has indicated this Wednesday that there are indications that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the supply to pro-Russian forces in eastern Ukraine of the ‘Bulk’ anti-aircraft defense system, whose missile would be behind the downing of the flight. MH17 perpetrated in 2014 in the area.
“There are strong indications that the Russian president decided to supply the ‘Buk Loom’ to the Donetsk separatists. This is the conclusion of the Joint Investigative Team (JIT) in its investigation into responsibility for the downing.” , the entity has indicated in a statement.
The JIT, which is investigating the downing of the Malaysia Airlines flight in eastern Ukraine, has indicated, however, despite these findings “it is not possible to impute Putin” and has confirmed that the investigation has been suspended. “The investigation has reached its limit,” he said, according to information from the newspaper ‘NRC Handelsblad’.
In this sense, the investigative team has indicated that everything indicates that Putin would have played an “active role” in said demolition given his involvement in the delivery of these missiles, which led to the crash of the plane.
The JIT has been working since 2014 together with countries like Australia, Belgium, Malaysia and Ukraine to resolve the case. At the end of 2022, a court in The Hague sentenced three pro-Russian rebels ‘in absentia’ to life imprisonment for their involvement and after years of investigations.
Now, the group has explained that despite the fact that the investigation is suspended for the moment, this does not mean that it will not resume once more evidence is collected about what happened.
Justice confirmed in the past that the missile that hit the aircraft was a ‘Buk’ that was launched from a farm and left 283 passengers and fifteen crew members dead.
The judges concluded that there is ample evidence supporting the hypothesis that the missile was Russian and was launched from said territory, which would then be under the control of pro-Russian forces.