The Russia Report

Issue 126

From the editor

The District Court of The Hague today found three defendants guilty of intentionally shooting down an aircraft and murdering 298 people, and acquitted a fourth on the final day of the MH17 trial. Russian citizens Igor Girkin and Sergei Dubinsky and Ukrainian citizen Leonid Kharchenko were sentenced to life in prison and ordered to pay 60 million euros in compensation to relatives of the victims. Oleg Pulatov, another Russian citizen, was acquitted on the basis that he did not have sufficient power over or involvement in the deployment and subsequent hiding of the Buk TELAR missile system that was used.

Relatives and lawyers listen to the MH17 verdict and sentencing

None of the defendants were present in court during trial that took place over a period of 2 ½ years, and only Pulatov was represented by lawyers. Pulatov also contributed video messages to the court. Russia has already said that it will ignore the verdict and refuse to extradite Girkin and Dubinsky to the Netherlands. But the voluminous evidence and damning conclusions read by presiding judge Hendrik Steenhuis leave no doubt that the Kremlin was completely responsible for the downing of the Malaysia Airlines plane in eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014.

“This case and some of the moments in it have made an unforgettable impression,” Steenhuis began. He explained that the court did indeed have jurisdiction in the case, in which 193 of the victims were Dutch citizens. Ukraine transferred its jurisdiction to the Netherlands, and the conflict could be deemed international because Russia had control over the governance and militants of the “Donetsk People’s Republic” (DPR) from May 2014, he said. But Russia has never taken responsibility for the DPR and has denied involvement, so those fighting on its side could not be considered legitimate combatants who might be entitled to immunity from prosecution. What they did was purely criminal.

Steenhuis also dismissed defence arguments that the case was distorted due to prosecution bias, although he did reprimand prosecutors for publishing information about the investigation. However, he said that this did not affect the judges’ impartiality and the severity of the case far outweighed the effect of the prosecutors’ actions. Likewise there was no need for the court to consider Russia’s various alternative narratives, such as the idea that a Ukrainian Buk might have shot down MH17 while aiming at an Air India flight, as this was technically impossible, Steenhuis said.

The evidence that MH17 was shot down by a Buk missile fired from a field near the town of Pervomaiskyi and that the Buk TELAR system was then transported back to Russia was beyond reasonable doubt, Steenhuis said. This was confirmed by videos, photographs, witness testimony, intercepted phone calls and distinctive bowtie-shaped fragments of the missile found in the bodies of victims. A green lump found lodged in the cockpit window came from the base plate of the Buk missile. "The court calls it inconceivable that such a multitude of evidence of various natures from different countries could have been fabricated so fast without leaving any trace,” Steenhuis said.

By contrast Buk manufacturer Almaz-Antey, a Russian state company, had an interest in the outcome of the case as it was sanctioned by Western countries, and submitted “entirely unconvincing” evidence, Steenhuis said. Similarly material submitted by the defence from an American agency repeated Almaz-Antey’s evidence without any investigation.

A witness known as “M58” who was under Kharchenko’s command saw the Buk’s smoke trail as it was launched, saw the aircraft crash and saw the Buk TELAR system with just three missiles on it after the fourth had been fired. In their phone calls the defendants requested a Buk TELAR and organised its arrival and departure. The accuracy of M58’s statements on many topics could be verified, and he answered all the questions that were posed to him, Steenhuis said. “After it became clear that this disaster was caused by the Buk TELAR, it was swiftly returned to the Russian Federation in the hope of avoiding an international outcry,” he continued.

The possibility of anybody on an aircraft surviving a Buk missile strike is zero, and those who deployed it knew that, Steenhuis said. “A Buk missile cannot be launched by mistake, nor in the heat of the moment. It must be carefully thought through... The court therefore concludes that it was fired at its target deliberately and after some consideration. It was crystal clear what the consequences would be.” It made no difference that the militants probably believed they were firing at a Ukrainian military plane, because they had no right to shoot down any plane. Their joy at apparently shooting down a military plane turned to horror when they realised what they had done, Steenhuis said.

The MH17 victims were robbed of their lives and their futures. Their lives were not yet over, or had barely begun, Steenhuis said. Their relatives suffered from trauma and PTSD, as did some of the residents of eastern Ukraine who saw the disaster happening in front of them. The charges are so severe and the consequences so grave that only the longest prison sentences are appropriate, he concluded. He also ruled that same-sex partners of the victims should be eligible for compensation, as well as victims’ siblings. Steenhuis said he hoped that the verdict and sentences would bring some relief to the relatives. The full ruling will be made available in Dutch, English and Russian in the coming weeks.

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Missile kills two in Poland during massive Russian strikes

Two people were killed in the Polish village of Przewodow near the border with Ukraine on Tuesday as a result of what Joe Biden says was likely Ukrainian missiles being fired at Russian missiles. Volodymyr Zelensky insists it was Russian missiles that landed in Poland. Russia had conducted one of its biggest attacks yet against civilians across Ukraine, with more residential buildings being hit, including in Kyiv, and electricity being knocked out in many areas. In a statement US National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said, “It is clear that the party ultimately responsible for this tragic incident is Russia, which launched a barrage of missiles on Ukraine specifically intended to target civilian infrastructure. Ukraine had – and has – every right to defend itself.”

Yesterday Russia also struck Dnipro with missiles, and a video showed an explosion on a road. The incident in Poland is the first time that a NATO country has been hit since Russia invaded Ukraine in February. Russia has called it a ”provocation” designed to provide a pretext for NATO to become involved in the war.

Wagner contractor killed by own men with sledgehammer

A video that emerged of Wagner contractor Yevgeny Nuzhin being killed with a sledgehammer by his former “colleagues” has been greeted with indifference by Russian authorities. Dmitri Peskov commented in response to a question from a journalist that “this is none of our business”. Nuzhin, 55, was recruited by Wagner while serving a 24-year prison sentence for a murder he committed in 1999. He was taken prisoner in Ukraine in October and returned to Russia in a POW exchange. During his captivity he told Ukrainian journalists that he wished to fight for Ukraine.

Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin was initially gleeful about Nuzhin’s murder, commenting that the video should be titled “To a dog – a dog’s death” and adding, “I hope no animals were harmed during filming.” But subsequently he claimed that the CIA could have killed Nuzhin and asked Russian prosecutors to investigate possible US involvement. Meanwhile the head of RT, Margarita Simonyan, commented, “If it wasn’t for the Wagner private military company there would have been many more deaths, many more mobilised men, many more crying wives and children.”