Putin played an active role in the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine

According to international investigators, Russian president Vladimir Putin played an active role in the downing of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17.

There is “strong evidence” that President Vladimir Putin personally approved the decision to provide separatists in Ukraine with the missile that shot down the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in 2014, Dutch investigators said Wednesday. This is apparent from intercepted phone calls, said the investigation team in The Hague. But their evidence is not enough to prosecute the Russian dictator who regardless, as a head of state, has immunity from prosecution. “We have reached our limits,” the investigators said.

298 people died when the plane was shot down over Ukraine in July 2014. The victims included 192 Dutch, 6 Belgians and 4 Germans. Three of the people responsible for the downing, Russians Igor Girkin and Sergey Dubinsky and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko, were convicted in absentia by a Dutch court in November and sentenced to life imprisonment.

They had purchased the Buk system from the Russian Army’s 53rd Brigade near Kursk and arranged transport across the border. The debris fell near the town of Tores in eastern Ukraine within a radius of 35 kilometres.

The Joint Investigation Team said that it had shared its findings with the families of the 298 victims