An international investigation has found that the Boeing 777 operating flight MH17 Amsterdam–Kuala Lumpur, on which all 298 people on board were killed, was shot down by a Russian-made Buk surface-to-air missile system. But Russia continues to manipulate this issue, blaming Ukraine.
In the 10 years since the crash, the rhetoric of Russian media about the catastrophe has not changed—only the focus of the propaganda has shifted. This was linked to the start of court hearings in The Hague and the release of previously unknown evidence of Russia’s involvement in the downing of the aircraft.
StopFake published a whole series of investigations that thoroughly analyze and debunk every Russian fake about the downing of the Boeing.
The Kremlin’s narratives about the MH17 disaster, compiled by the fact-checking team at StopFake:
- MH17 was shot down by a Ukrainian Su-25; the Ukrainian Armed Forces wanted to shoot down Putin’s plane;
- the Boeing’s passengers “had been dead long before the plane crashed”;
- no Russian “Buk” was found at the crash site;
- a “US and Ukraine conspiracy,” “Western cover-up,” and “whitewashing” of Ukraine in the investigation;
- “falsification” of the court proceedings; in the Netherlands they supposedly do not “truly investigate” alternative scenarios in the MH17 case and “ignore” Russian evidence against Ukraine;
- a “bloody anti-Russian fake”; Russia’s “non-involvement” in the disaster; and that “a huge number of people” believe in Russia’s innocence.
In response to the investigation, Russia ran a broad disinformation campaign featuring its own witnesses and fake sources.
Ukrainian photographer and Associated Press journalist Mstyslav Chernov was among the first to document the aftermath of the largest air disaster in Ukraine’s history. According to Chernov, international agencies still had accreditations to work in Donbas at the time, so photographers were following the news and doing their jobs.
“When reports appeared on social media that a transport plane had been shot down, we decided we had to go immediately and film. On the way, London called and said a passenger plane was missing. At first we didn’t even understand what had happened. We thought two planes had disappeared at once. Then everything became clear.”
“Contact with the aircraft, a Boeing 777-200ER, was lost about 50 km from the Ukrainian–Russian border, and the wreckage fell near Torez in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, 40 km from the border. The crash occurred in an area controlled by the so-called ‘Donbas people’s militia,’ during fighting in the Shakhtarsk district as part of the war in Donbas,” — Mstyslav Chernov comments.
An international investigation found that MH17 was shot down by a Russian-made Buk surface-to-air missile system. The Netherlands, Australia, the United States, the G7 countries, the EU, and NATO officially agreed with the experts’ conclusions. A court in The Hague issued in absentia sentences to two Russians and one Ukrainian.
In 2020, the Dutch government filed an application with the European Court of Human Rights seeking to have Russia recognized as responsible for the deaths of 298 people, including 80 children. The victims were citizens of different countries, most of them Dutch. In June 2024, the European Court concluded oral hearings and moved to preparing a judgment in the interstate case “Ukraine and the Netherlands v. Russia.”
This material was produced with the support of The Fritt Ord Foundation.
Contributors:
Researcher, text author: Yana Yevmenova
Photo editor: Olha Kovalova
Literary editor: Yuliia Futei
