MH17 wreckage in a Ukrainian sunflower field in Donetsk. Photo: AFP.
Members of Australia’s Ukrainian community will gather on Thursday 17 and Saturday 19 July to commemorate the downing by Russian forces of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, and to remember the victims.
Friends of Ukraine Canberra Queanbeyan (FoU) along with the Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations (AFUO) will gather outside the Russian Embassy on Canberra Avenue in Griffith at 11 am on Thursday to remember the 298 passengers and crew of the aircraft, including 38 Australians.
The Boeing 777-200 was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on 17 July 2014, when it was shot down by a Russian medium-range surface-to-air missile fired from the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine while cruising at 33,000 feet.
At the time, that area of Ukraine was occupied by Russian-backed separatists, and the region had seen more than 30,000 casualties since the occupation began earlier that year.
The aircraft was operating in accordance with a minimum-altitude restriction put in place by Ukrainian aviation authorities on 14 July after a Ukrainian military transport plane was shot down while flying at a lower level, and three other foreign passenger airliners were also in the same radar control sector at the same time.
As it approached the Russian border, MH17’s flight crew was in communication with air traffic controllers in nearby Dnipropetrovsk (now Dnipro) in Ukraine and in Rostov-na-Donu in Russia just before 13:20 UTC. No distress signal was received, and the flight disappeared from radar screens at 13:26.
Wreckage was subsequently discovered near the eastern Ukrainian village of Hrabove.
The Buk is a self-propelled surface-to-air missile system that carries a quad missile launcher and radar on a tank or large truck chassis. The vehicle that fired the missile that hit MH17 was subsequently traced using open-source intelligence to the Russian Army’s 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade, which is based in the city of Kursk.
Australia subsequently sent diplomatic staff supported by the Australian Federal Police to the crash site to aid in the recovery of the bodies and personal effects, and the Royal Australian Air Force was heavily involved in the repatriation of the bodies to Australia from Eindhoven Air Base in the Netherlands.
An investigation by the Dutch Safety Board (DSB) and a Joint Investigation Team (JIT), reported in 2016 that the aircraft had been downed by a Russian missile. It said the launcher had been transported from Russia on the day of the crash, fired from a field in a rebel-controlled area, and that the launch system was then returned to Russia afterwards.
On 12 May The Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) determined that Russia failed to uphold its obligations under international air law in the 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine.
The case was brought before ICAO by the Netherlands and Australia, which alleged that Russia’s conduct in the downing of the aircraft by the missile over Ukraine constituted a breach of Article 3 bis of the Convention on International Civil Aviation, which requires that states “refrain from resorting to the use of weapons against civil aircraft in flight”.
Then on 9 July the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) said Russia had refused to cooperate with international information requests, failed to conduct a proper investigation, spread disinformation about the plane’s downing, and deliberately obstructed efforts to uncover the truth.
It also said Russia had been responsible for “widespread and flagrant” human rights violations in Ukraine following its full-scale invasion in 2022.
Chair of the Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations Kateryna Argyrou said the community’s thoughts were with the families and loved ones of the 298 innocent people who lost their lives – including 38 Australians.
“We stand with them in their ongoing grief and in their pursuit of truth, justice, and accountability,” she said.
“The loss of Australian lives on MH17 forged a deep and painful bond between the Ukrainian and Australian communities. Our shared grief has become a shared commitment to truth, justice, and peace.
“Russia’s refusal to accept responsibility for MH17 is consistent with its ongoing efforts to evade accountability for its actions – both past and present,” she added.
Friends of Ukraine Coordinator Marusya Jacyshyn said, “We should never forget this terrorist act by Russia. Each year the Ukrainian Australian Community and friends, honour the memory of the lives lost and extend sympathies to family members.”
On 17 July, commemorative events will be held at the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church in Turner at noon, as well as the St Peter and St Paul Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral in North Melbourne at 7 pm, and the Ukrainian Catholic Church at Woolloongabba in Brisbane at 6 pm, while a rally will also be held on Hobart’s Parliament Lawns at 10 am on Saturday 19 July.
