MH17 suspects charged with murder over over 298 deaths will likely escape justice

The charges against four men over the shooting down of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 is meant to show that the efforts to find those culpable for the deaths of 298 passengers and crew five years ago have not been abandoned.

International warrants have been issued for the men, three Russians and a Ukrainian, and a trial is due to begin in the Netherlands on 9 March 2020. But the chances of the accused facing justice and serving jail terms are virtually non-existent.

The Kremlin has repeatedly denied any responsibility for the attack, which took place during Ukraine’s civil war, and has blamed the Kiev government for carrying it out. Russia does not extradite its citizens to face legal proceedings abroad, and there is no apparent reason why they should do so in this case.

Nevertheless, the evidence which will be produced in the trial of the suspects, in absentia, is expected to reveal details of the chain of command and the operation which used a BUK missile against the airline: an attack which tore the plane apart mid-air.

The names of those indicted by the Dutch-led international Joint Investigation Team (JIT) are not a huge surprise, they have been mentioned in Ukraine and elsewhere for a while as being supposedly involved in the destruction of MH17.

According to chief prosecutor Fred Westerbeke the four men had all been party to moving the BUK launcher to field in the Donbass, from which the missile was fired.

The most high-profile name in the list is that Igor Girkin, a former colonel in the Russian intelligence service, FSB.

We used to know him as Col Igor Strelkov while covering the war in eastern Ukraine, first coming at the town of Slovyansk, which became strategic and symbolic flashpoint in the conflict.

We discovered subsequently that he was also at Crimea when we were reporting on the annexation of the province by Russia.

Col Strelkov and a group under him have been accused by the Ukrainian governments of a number of “terrorist acts”. This included the kidnap, torture and murder of a local politician, Vladimir Rybak, at the town of Horlivka. Calls intercepted by the Ukrainian secret service, SBU, it is claimed, show Col Strelkov giving instructions on the disposal of Mr Rybak’s corpse.

After she had viewed his body, Mr Rybak’s widow, Elena, told The Independent: “My first impression was there was so many holes in the body – holes in the body of someone who was so much to me. How can people be so cruel?

“How can they do that to a fellow human being? There must have been quite a few men who took part in this kidnapping. I heard that when they tried to get him into the car he said he had to go home to his family, then they dragged him in,” she said.

Col Strelkov, who became the Minister of Defence of the separatist Donetsk Peoples Republic (DPR), denied being involved in Mr Rybak’s death. After being named by the chief prosecutor over MH17 attack, Mr Girkin (Strelkov) issued a statement saying: “I can only say that militia did not shoot down the Boeing.”

The others allegedly involved in shooting down the airliner are Sergei Dubinsky (also known as Khmuriy) who, it is claimed by the investigators, was deputy to Col Strelkov and is a former member of GRU, the Russian military intelligence service which has been accused of carrying out the Novichok attack in Salisbury.

Oleg Pulatov, also known as Giurza, is a former soldier in the Spetsnaz GRU, the service’s special forces, and was deputy head of the intelligence service of DPR when Col Strelkov was defence chief.

While the international investigators announced the charges, the investigative website Bellingcat published the names of others allegedly involved in the attack, including 12 people involved with separatist militias. It claimed that the GRU and the DPR’s intelligence services had coordinated in the operation.

The Kremlin reiterated that it had no involvement in the downing of the Malaysian airliner and accused the JIT investigation of being “biased and politically motivated”.

Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stressed that Russia has not been allowed to be part of the inquiry.

More revelations will emerge over the destruction of MH17, along with further accusations and recriminations, but it is also very unlikely that the accused will ever be seen outside Russia again.