The Dutch prosecutor’s office will press charges against three Russians and one Ukrainian in the case of the 2014 flight MH17 crash in Donbas.
The charges will be brought against the former head of the pro-Russian separatists, Igor Girkin, the Russians Sergei Dubinsky (retired Russian intelligence officer) and Oleg Pulatov (commander of the 2nd department of the DPR GRU), as well as the Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko (DPR GRU).
According to the Joint Investigative Team, which was investigating the circumstances of the Boeing 777 crash over Donetsk region of Ukraine, the suspects were in close contact with Moscow.
Investigators believe that Dubinsky, Pulatov and Strelkov now live in Russia, and Kharchenko — in the east of Ukraine, in the territory outside official Kyiv’s control. All four have been put on international wanted list and the case will be referred to a Dutch court by the end of the year. The trial is to start in 2020.
The MH17 flight was shot down in the sky over Donbas on 17 July 2014. “The Boeing 777 was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. There were 298 people on board. They were all killed. The Netherlands and Australia officially consider Russia guilty of the tragedy. In 2018, representatives of the Joint Investigation Team stated that the BUK anti-missile system used to shoot down the passenger plane belonged to the Russian armed forces. According to the investigation, The BUK was in service with the 53rd anti-aircraft missile brigade based in Kursk.
