Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky praised an "important" court ruling Thursday, after a Dutch court sentenced two Russians and a Ukrainian to life imprisonment in absentia over the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine in 2014.
"An important court decision in The Hague. The first sentences for the perpetrators of the downing of MH17," Zelensky wrote on Twitter. "Holding the instigators to account is crucial too because a sense of impunity leads to new crimes."
"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.
"Today's verdicts send a message to Russia: no amount of lies can help escape justice. All criminals up the Russian chain of command shall be held accountable," he wrote on Twitter.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said the ruling sent "the strongest signal to the whole world, including Russia itself, that every war crime committed by the Russians will be documented, investigated and brought to a conclusion. No matter how much time it takes."
