EXPRESS :VLADIMIR Putin is being sued for $330m by the families of victims on board the doomed Malaysian Airlines flight that was shot down over Ukraine two years ago.Flight MH17 crashed in the Donetsk Oblast region during a bloody battle between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian government forces on July 17, 2014, killing all 298 people on board. The plane was travelling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was hit by a Russian-made surface-to-air missile, the Dutch Safety Board concluded in its final report late last year. Now Australian law firm LHD Lawyers has filed a compensation claim in the European Court of Human Rights against the Russian federation and President Putin. Australian news outlet Fairfax Media said the application was filed on May 9, seeking $10m in compensation each for 33 victims, from Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia. The Dutch Safety Board, which was not empowered to address questions of responsibility, did not point the finger at any group or party for launching the missile in its report. Russia and Putin deny responsibility for the deaths and maintain it was shot down by Ukraine. Fighting was raging in eastern Ukraine between pro-Russian rebels and the military at the time the aircraft was downed, with many Western experts and governments blaming the rebels. Earlier this month a team of citizen journalists for investigative website Bellingcat analysed reams of footage from the day the jet crashed and claim to have evidence of Russian involvement. The group claimed the weapon used was a BUK missile belonging to Russia’s 53rd Anti-Aircraft Brigade, based in Kursk. Identification of the missile, numbered 332, was made more difficult by one of the ID numbers being removed, leading to it initially being called 3×2.The investigative team said in a statement: “We reviewed materials going back over five years to determine various characteristics unique to this BUK before finally identifying the mystery middle digit that was obscured when the missile launcher was last seen in 2014. “Therefore, on 17 July 2014, the Russian BUK TELAR numbered 332 of the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade based in Kursk was filmed and photographed in eastern Ukraine. “This specific BUK, previously identified as BUK 3×2, was filmed moving to the centre of the launch area estimated by the Dutch Safety Board for the missile that downed MH17.”
