MH17 Ukraine disaster: A year on, relatives still waiting for answers

After a church service in the village of Hrabove, residents joined a procession across an open field to a gravestone placed near the charred area where twisted metal and body parts came crashing down on July 17 last year.

“To the memory of the dead –  298 innocent victims of civil war,” was written on the gravestone, where a Russian Orthodox priest and a mullah said prayers. About 300 people brought flowers and flags of the countries the victims came from, some with black ribbons attached, and released white balloons into the sky. “The memory of these people will always be in our hearts ... pray for their souls,” said a priest.

Western governments believe that pro-Russian rebels shot the plane out of the sky with a Russian-supplied BUK missile. Britain and Ukraine marked the anniversary with new appeals for a tribunal to prosecute suspects.

Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed those calls as premature and counter-productive on Thursday in a phone call with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, and criticised “politicized” versions of the incident “planted” in foreign media.

Some 193 of the victims were from the Netherlands, where flags flew at half-mast on public buildings. Thirty-nine of the victims were from Australia, which held a memorial service. “Their passing leaves a void than can never be filled and a pain that still throbs,” Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbot said.

Malaysia remembered the victims, 43 of whom were Malaysian, at a ceremony on July 11. Malaysia, Australia, the Netherlands, Britain, Belgium and Ukraine have now called for an international tribunal to bring to justice those behind the downing of the airliner.

Rutte has said a United Nations-backed tribunal was his “preferred option” but Western diplomats say they are open to the prospect of a tribunal that is not backed by the UN if Russia wields its Security Council veto.