The European Court of Human Rights on 9 July unanimously held Russia responsible for the 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 and for "widespread and flagrant" violations of the European Convention on Human Rights in Ukraine, delivering the first international judgments to assign legal liability to Moscow for both the crash and war-related abuses. In a 501-page decision that merged four inter-state applications filed by Ukraine and the Netherlands, the Grand Chamber found that Russian forces and Moscow-backed separatists committed murder, torture, rape, indiscriminate attacks on civilians, destruction of infrastructure and the forcible transfer of Ukrainian children from 2014 until Russia’s expulsion from the Council of Europe in September 2022. The court said the abuses were systematic, exceeded any military objective and formed part of a "massive" campaign in territory under effective Russian control. Addressing Flight MH17, the judges concluded that a Russian-supplied Buk surface-to-air missile fired from separatist-held eastern Ukraine destroyed the Amsterdam-to-Kuala Lumpur Boeing 777 on 17 July 2014, killing all 298 people aboard, among them 196 Dutch nationals. Russia’s subsequent refusal to investigate and its obstruction of international inquiries were deemed separate violations of the Convention. The Strasbourg tribunal will decide on compensation later. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the rulings as "void," while Kyiv and The Hague welcomed them as an important step toward accountability. Although Russia quit the court in 2022, it remains legally bound to comply with judgments covering the period when it was still a signatory.