Ukraine welcomes MH17 verdict, wants those who ordered attack to face trial

Kyiv welcomed the murder convictions handed out by a Dutch court on Thursday to three men for their role in the 2014 shooting down of a Malaysian airliner over Ukraine, but said those who ordered the attack must face trial. The court in The Hague issued the sentences after saying Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 was shot down by a Russian-made missile fired from a field in eastern Ukraine and that Russia had overall control of separatist forces at the time. "An important decision of the court in The Hague. The first sentences for those responsible for shooting down #MH17," President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote on Twitter. "But it is necessary that those who ordered it also end up in the dock because the feeling of impunity leads to new crimes. We have to dispel this illusion. Punishment for all Russian atrocities - both then and now - will be inevitable." The plane was shot down as Russian-backed separatists fought Ukrainian forces in eastern Ukraine, a region where fighting continues following Russian's invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. The three men convicted were former Russian intelligence agents Igor Girkin and Sergey Dubinskiy, and Leonid Kharchenko, a Ukrainian separatist leader. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba hailed a "profound joint effort" by Ukraine, the Netherlands, Belgium, Australia, and Malaysia.<br/>