Five years after a missile blew Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 out of the sky above eastern Ukraine, relatives and friends of those killed gathered Wednesday at a Dutch memorial to mark the anniversary.
Hours before the start of a memorial ceremony, families began arriving, many holding hands and clutching bunches of sunflowers.
The names of all 298 passengers and crew killed on July 17, 2014, will be read out at a solemn ceremony at a monument surrounded by trees, one planted for each victim, close to Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, where passengers boarded the flight heading to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
FILE - In this file photo dated Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2014, Pro-Russian rebel fighter guards one of the areas of the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 plane crash in the village of Rossypne, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine. Five years after a missile blew Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 out of the sky above eastern Ukraine, relatives and friends of those killed will gather Wednesday July 17, 2019, at a Dutch memorial to mark the anniversary.(AP PhotoMstyslan Chernov, FILE)
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and the head of a foundation of relatives of the dead were delivering speeches at the ceremony.
Nearly 200 of the victims were Dutch; others came from countries including Malaysia, Australia, Canada, Britain and Belgium.
In the five years since the plane was shot down, a Dutch crash investigation ruled that a Buk surface-to-air missile brought down the Boeing 777.
FIlE - In this file photo dated Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2015, the reconstructed cockpit of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 plane is displayed before a news conference by the Dutch Safety Board in Gilze-Rijen, Netherlands. Five years after a missile blew Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 out of the sky above eastern Ukraine, relatives and friends of those killed will gather Wednesday July 17, 2019, at a Dutch memorial to mark the anniversary.(AP PhotoPeter Dejong, FILE)
A separate criminal investigation concluded that the missile system was trucked into Ukraine from Russia.
Last month, a Joint Investigation Team made up of detectives from the Netherlands, Malaysia, Australia, Ukraine and Belgium said it will prosecute four suspects, in their absence if necessary, at a trial set to start in March.
They are charged with involvement in the murder of all those who lost their lives. The team said that even if the four may not have personally launched the Buk missile that downed the plane, they were implicated in the preparations of the launch, making it sufficient to charge them.
Those indicted include Igor Girkin, a retired colonel in Russia's main intelligence agency, the FSB, who led Russian and separatist forces in Ukraine's Donetsk region in 2014. He has dismissed the accusations.
The three others are Russian citizens Sergey Dubinskiy, identified as a former employee of Russia's military intelligence service, and Oleg Pulatov, described as a former soldier in military intelligence; and Leonid Kharchenko, a Ukrainian citizen who led a combat unit in the Donetsk region.
Russia has called the charges "absolutely unfounded" and accused investigators of using "dubious" information and ignoring evidence provided by Moscow in order to discredit Russia.
On Tuesday, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus expressed sympathy to the families and friends of victims and called on Russia "to ensure that individuals currently in Russia who were indicted by Dutch prosecutors in June will face justice."
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk expressed satisfaction on Monday after a series of candidates supported by his party won weekend races for mayor.
Candidates from his pro-European Union centrist Civic Coalition, or running with the party's backing, won in a series of cities in the second round of local elections held on Sunday, among them Krakow, Poznan, Wroclaw and Rzeszow.
“It is very difficult to clearly say who won and who lost,” Tusk said Monday. “But if we compare these results, especially in the most attractive places, on these attractive battlefields ... then I actually have reasons for satisfaction.”
“Law and Justice has simply disappeared in many places,” Tusk added at a news conference, referring to the main opposition party.
The results put Civic Coalition in a favorable position as the country looks next to elections to the European Parliament on June 9.
Mayors were chosen in a total of 748 cities and towns where no single candidate won at least 50% of the vote during the first round on April 7.
Candidates for Tusk’s party also recaptured cities where they had not held power for many years, including Zielona Gora, Legnica and Torun.
The local and regional elections were viewed as a test for Tusk's pro-European Union government four months after it took power at the national level. Sunday's second round strengthened the Tusk government's leverage in the cities, which should facilitate cooperation on development projects and allotment of EU funds.
Tusk's allies also won in some places in the first round two weeks ago, including in Warsaw, where incumbent Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski was an easy victor.
In the first round, the right-wing Law and Justice, prevailed on the level of regional assemblies in the country's 16 provinces, where it took 34.3% of the votes, while Tusk's Civic Coalition got 30.6%. Law and Justice governed on the national level from 2015-23.
Tusk’s socially liberal Civic Coalition traditionally has strong support in cities, while Law and Justice has a more solid base in conservative rural areas, particularly in eastern Poland.
Civic Coalition is the largest group in a three-party coalition that governs the EU nation of 38 million people. The coalition is pro-European Union but otherwise spans a wide ideological spectrum with left-wing politicians in the Left party as well as conservatives in the Third Way.
Polish voters take part in a local runoff election in Lomianki, near Warsaw, Poland on Sunday, April 21, 2024. Voters are choosing mayors who did not win outright in the first round of the election two weeks earlier. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)
Campaign posters promote candidates as Poles vote in local and regional elections in Lomianki, near Warsaw, Poland on Sunday, April 21, 2024. Voters are choosing mayors who did not win outright in the first round of the election two weeks earlier. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)
Polish voters take part in a local runoff election in Lomianki, near Warsaw, Poland on Sunday, April 21, 2024. Voters are choosing mayors who did not win outright in the first round of the election two weeks earlier. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)
Polish voters take part in a local runoff election in Lomianki, near Warsaw, Poland on Sunday, April 21, 2024. Voters are choosing mayors who did not win outright in the first round of the election two weeks earlier. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)
FILE - Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk reacts during his and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meeting with students in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, Jan. 22, 2024. Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk is celebrating a victory on Monday April 22, 2024 after a series of candidates supported by his party won weekend races for mayor. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File)
FILE - Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk listens to the media in Berlin, Germany, Friday, March 15, 2024. Tusk is celebrating a victory on Monday April 22, 2024 after a series of candidates supported by his party won weekend races for mayor. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi, File)
