Dutch lawmakers begin probe into Ukraine’s role in MH17 downing

Dutch lawmakers have voted to launch an investigation into Ukraine’s involvement in the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17. The Netherlands has blamed Russia for the tragedy – a stance that has been criticized by Malaysia.

Dutch MP Chris van Dam, the spokesman for the investigation into the 2014 MH17 crash, announced on Tuesday that his country’s parliament had unanimously passed a resolution aimed at shedding light on Kiev’s role in the incident.He said the probe would focus on why Ukrainian airspace “was not closed” over Donetsk in the summer of 2014, which at the time saw fierce fighting between pro-Kiev forces and the breakaway Donetsk People’s Republic.

MH17 was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was downed over eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014, killing all 298 people on board. A subsequent Dutch-led probe into the tragedy has been heavily criticized, particularly because Ukraine, a suspect in the incident, was part of the international investigative team.

The Dutch-led investigators listed three Russians and a Ukrainian as suspects in the incident, but their findings have been criticized by the Malaysian government.

“They aren’t really looking at the causes of the crash and who was responsible, but already they have decided that it must be Russia. We can’t accept that kind of attitude,” Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said in an interview in July.

Russia has maintained that it had nothing to do with the aircraft’s downing. It supplied radar data and evidence from experiments to the Dutch-led experts proving that the missile that destroyed the Malaysian plane belonged to the Ukrainian military, but this data has been brushed aside.

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