The Dutch government has filed a lawsuit against the Russian government in the European Court of Human Rights for Russia’s role in the fatal shoot down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine in July 2014. Nearly 300 people died in incident.
The BBC reports that Dutch-led investigators claim to have evidence that the missile used to destroy the Boeing 777 commercial airliner was purchased by pro-Moscow separatists from Russia.
Russia has long been suspected of supplying arms, personnel and financial aid to the separatists. So-called “Little Green Men”–soldiers without any military insignia–were widely reported to be fighting for the separatists using Russian-made arms, supplies and munitions.
On July 17, 2014, MH17 was flying from Amsterdam, the Netherlands to Kuala Lumpur, Thailand at an altitude designated for commercial flights over the eastern Ukraine when it was struck by a missile and crashed. Two hundred eighty three passengers and fifteen crew were killed; 193 victims were Dutch.