The MH17 tragedy had many fathers. Before discussing the main guilty party — Putin's Russian government — something must be said about the contributory roles of the Kiev government, the international airlines' association (IATA) and International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) members, and Malaysian Airlines.
Many airlines including British Airways, Qantas, Korean Air and Asiana had prudently stopped flying over the Eastern Ukraine conflict zone months ago. But some, including Malaysian Airlines, Singapore Airlines and Etihad, continued to do so because of the fuel savings using the minimum-distance great circle route between Europe and Dubai and Asia, which passes over Ukraine.
IATA defended this practice because it said ICAO, the international regulatory agency, had approved this route, provided Crimea was avoided (because of the risk of uncontrolled aircraft) and a 'safe' height maintained. The Ukrainian government, not wanting to lose substantial overflight fees and trying to maintain the fiction that only 'criminal bandits' were involved in unrest in the east, had assured ICAO that routes over Ukraine were safe.
The fact that many airlines prudently decided to avoid overflying the conflict zone in Eastern Ukraine, and that over the past five weeks insurgents had shot down at least three Ukrainian military aircraft in the conflict area, suggests that the airlines that continued to overfly the area, the members of IATA and ICAO that did not speak out against this practice, and the government in Kiev, are all guilty of substantial contributory negligence.
Had they done their job, the criminals who brought down MH17 would have had no civil aircraft to shoot at. Now, of course, it is an ICAO-declared no-fly zone.
Nevertheless Moscow emerges as the immediate and main contributor. Moscow is encouraging and supplying the military insurgency in Eastern Ukraine. It is clear now that Russian BUK (surface-to-air) units had begun to shoot down Ukrainian military aircraft from insurgent-held areas of Eastern Ukraine in recent weeks.
Whether these units were staffed by Russian-trained Ukrainian soldiers, or by Russian nationals, is unclear at this stage. There is evidence published by Kiev that BUK units were hastily moved twice across the border (Russia is only 30 miles from the crash site).
It seems Russia — despite knowing international airlines were still overflying the area at height — took no safety precautions in the use of these units.
What we know, because of Australia's membership of the five-power intelligence club, comes from satellite imagery. US Secretary of State John Kerry