17/07/2024 Legal Affairs and Human Rights
PACE rapporteur on ensuring accountability for the downing of flight MH17, Titus Corlăţean (Romania, SOC), issued the following statement marking the 10th anniversary of the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 by the Russian-controlled separatist forces in eastern Ukraine:
“On 17 July 2014, 298 men, women, and children perished in what turned out to be a prelude to a decade of violence, orchestrated by the regime of Vladimir Putin.
Today, I am in the Hague to participate in ceremonies commemorating this heinous crime. In 2022, the Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution on ensuring accountability for the downing of flight MH17, for which I had a great honour and responsibility to serve as the rapporteur. That resolution considered that flight MH17 was shot down by a Buk missile made available by the Russian military to the military units controlled by the Russian Federation.
17 July is also the Day of International Criminal Justice, marking the anniversary of the adoption in 1998 of the Rome Statute, the founding treaty of the International Criminal Court. As we honour the memory of those who died onboard Malaysian Airlines Flight MH 17, we also remember all the lives lost in the Russian aggression against Ukraine. It is our collective responsibility to bring the Russian Federation and its political and military leadership to justice for its gross violations of international law. I am sure that the Assembly will not rest in its efforts to make it happen.”