Two Russians and a Ukrainian were convicted Thursday of murdering the 298 people who died on Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in 2014. The Boeing 777, flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was brought down over Ukraine on July 17, 2014, by a Buk missile fired by Kremlin-backed rebels. A Dutch court, which began hearing the case two years ago, had earlier ruled that Moscow enjoyed overall control of separatist forces in the Donetsk region at the time. The court found two Russians, Igor Girkin and Sergei Dubinsky, and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko, guilty of deliberately downing the plane. A fourth man, Russian Oleg Pulatov, was acquitted for lack of evidence. Girkin is a former Russian intelligence officer who commanded separatist forces in the Donbas region up until the MH17 disaster. A critic of Russian military performance since this February's invasion of Ukraine, Girkin last month announced he was joining a volunteer unit to fight in the war.
