An international Joint Investigation Team, reporting out of the Hague in the Netherlands, has claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin signed off on providing the anti-aircraft munitions allegedly used by Ukrainian separatists to shoot down a Malaysian airliner in 2014.
All 298 people aboard died on the Boeing 777, which was heading from the Netherlands to Malaysia on July 17 of that year. The flight path took the plane over eastern Ukraine, where Russian-backed separatists in the Donbas region were warring with the Ukrainian military, per AP.
The team was composed of investigators from Australia, Belgium, Netherlands, Malaysia, and Ukraine, all of whom had citizens die in the incident.
The investigation concluded that a Russian-made Buk missile system downed the plane over the Donbas region of Ukraine. A Dutch court had previously ruled that Russia had “overall control” of separatist political and military authorities at the time, according to the BBC.
“Although we speak of strong indications, the high bar of complete and conclusive evidence is not reached,” said Dutch prosecutor Digna van Boetzelaer, AP reported.
The prosecutor further acknowledged that the investigation had reached its limits, having received no assistance from the Russian government over the course of the probe.
“The findings are insufficient for the prosecution of new suspects,” said van Boetzelaer, according to Reuters.
Even if conclusive evidence were to be ascertained as to Putin’s complicity in the downing of the plane, he would be immune from prosecution at the Hague because he is a head of a state, AP reported.
The Kremlin has denied its involvement in the destruction of the commercial airliner since it fell out of the sky nine years ago and condemned the earlier trial in absentia of three Russian citizens charged by a Dutch court with the downing of the plane, according to the BBC.
The Dallas Express reached out for comment from officials at the Russian Embassy in Washington D.C. and two Russian Consulates in Houston and New York City, but no response was received by press time.
News of the international investigative team’s findings comes on the heels of a recent Pew Research Center poll that found a growing bipartisan bloc of Americans feels that the United States is providing too much aid to Ukraine, which has been fueling its war with Russia.
