MH17 victims remembered 10 years from tragedy

Foreign Minister Penny Wong says Australia will not be deterred from its commitment to hold Russia ‘to account’ for the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, as the victims’ families mark a decade since the tragedy.

Former foreign minister Julie Bishop, Foreign Minister Penny Wong and AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Foreign Minister Penny Wong says Australia will not be deterred from its commitment to hold Moscow “to account” for the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 by Russian separatists, as the families of the victims pay tribute to their loved ones a decade after the tragedy.

As the anniversary brings the Russia-Ukraine war to the forefront, former prime minister Tony Abbott has called on Labor to return its embassy to Kyiv in a sign of support, and the parents of one victim say they held Russian President Vladimir Putin personally responsible for the deaths.

In a solemn memorial service at Parliament House in Canberra on Wednesday, the loved ones of the 38 Australian victims, former foreign minister Julie Bishop and high ranking defence and police personnel paid tribute to the lives lost when the plane was hit by a missile fired from a part of eastern Ukraine controlled by pro-Russian separatists.

Senator Wong said each of the 298 deaths was a “singular tragedy and an infinite loss”, saying she was appalled at Russia’s response to the strike, including withdrawing from the legal process and dismissing the findings of an international court that two of its citizens and a Ukrainian separatist were responsible.

“We will not be deterred in our commitment to hold Russia to account,” she said. “We can but imagine the courage you have needed to summon to get through these 10 years. Grief never fully leaves us but time and love can lessen its weight.

“The people you love – the people taken from you – remain in our hearts and in our purpose.”

Jon and Meryn O’Brien, whose son Jack was on board the ill-fated flight returning home from a European holiday, have said they hold Russia and Putin responsible for the “murder of our son and 297 other people”.

“We blame the Russian Federation. I think that’s obvious,” Ms O’Brien said. “The investigation was meticulous over eight years, we went to the start of the trial, we went to the end of the trial, which was more than two years, we followed it. We knew the work that went into it, and the judgment was unequivocal.”

Mr O’Brien said he thought about his son “every hour of every day”, revealing he still drove his “old battered Corolla”, which they also used to drive their daughter to her wedding.

“It always seems strange Jack isn’t here,” he said. “I think it’ll always seem strange. It’ll never seem right, but he’s not here.”

Mr Abbott, who infamously vowed to “shirtfront” Putin following the tragedy, said the Albanese government should indicate its “deep solidarity and gratitude” to Ukraine during its struggle to repel a Russian invasion, saying about 70 other countries had returned their ambassadors to Kyiv.

“I think it’s a real crying shame that our ambassador is still cowering in Warsaw,” he said. “If it’s safe enough for other countries’ ambassadors to go back to Kyiv, it’s surely safe for our ambassador to go back to Kyiv.

“I don’t think we are by nature a frightened people. I think we are by nature a brave people, and a brave country should send its ambassador back to Kyiv.”

Ukraine ambassador to Australia Vasyl Myroshnychenko said his country would welcome the return of an Australian representative to Kyiv, which would make it easier to communicate on a “regular basis … This tragic event of July 17 bound our countries together, and that was the reason why the Australian government decided to implement an ambassador to Ukraine, following this tragic event.”