MH17 ‘murder devastated my family’

The murder of Canberra’s Lili­ane Dardene in the MH17 dis­aster has resulted in such deep trauma to her family and loved ones that her long-time partner is now living in a shared home.

Serge and Vera Oreshkin at the MH17 memorial in 2017.

The murder of Canberra’s Lili­ane Dardene in the MH17 dis­aster has resulted in such deep trauma to her family and loved ones that her long-time partner is now living in a shared home unable to cope with life.

Her daughter Cassandra told the Schiphol court hearing via video link: “Images haunt me of Mum falling from the sky. And knowing some of Mum remains in a field seven years on disturbs me. Thanks to irresponsible, gutless inhuman people, I will never see my Mum again.’’

The MH17 trial heard victim impact statements from Cassandra and Chelsea, the two daughters of Dardene, 50, who died as she was returning to Australia after visiting her terminally ill eldest brother in Belgium.

She had been due to fly into Perth to see Cassandra and her seven-month-old granddaughter Ella before returning to Hall in the ACT.

Cassandra said she had a call from Chelsea, who was holidaying in Budapest but was so distraught Cassandra initially didn’t know who was on the line. Upon hearing the news, she fell to the floor in shock before ringing her mother’s partner of 13 years, Craig, who confirmed the flight number. “He said he will never forget my screams down the phone,’’ she said.

Such was the grief Cassandra experienced she was unable to function and look after her baby. “I was unable to feed her or hold her. My heart was completely broken.’’

She said Craig was unable to talk to the court “because it is just too hard … Mum was a rock in his life for 13 years’’.

She said she had been extremely close to her mother, speaking to her several times a day on the phone. Lilian would speak to baby Evie in Flemish and made sure she got a Belgium passport so she could eventually visit her Belgian relatives.

Lilian had travelled to Europe with Chelsea and the two split up for the end of the trip, with Chelsea visiting Hungary and Lilian spending more time with her eldest brother, who was terminally ill. That brother held on for another three months until Lilian’s body was identified. Her family, Cassandra said, then had to say goodbye to their eldest and youngest child within weeks.

She said she felt she had become a burden to family and friends. “The fear is debilitating, I live in constant fear: what if lose them like I lost my Mum? The anxiety is almost unbreakable. I also didn’t realise how much it would affect my employment.’’

Chelsea, wiping tears, told the court: “Words can’t explain the feeling in my body when I made the connection it was my Mum’s flight, or the phone call to Cassandra.’’ She said she didn’t work for five months. “How can person so feel so heavy and empty all at once, to be surrounded by people yet feel so alone?”

Sydneysider Vera Oreshkin, supported by her husband, Serge, told the court their lives were so overwhelmed “we almost cease to exist’’. She said she had nightmares about the way her son died: “What a horror it must have been for my son.’’

Victor Oreshkin, 29, was on MH17 returning home after a five-week Christian preaching trip with other Christians.

Ms Oreshkin said depression hit her and her husband hard and they sought help: “It is a deep pain in our hearts of missing our son that no one can ever fill, the trauma and tragedy of our son Victor and the profound sense of loss … the tragedy will be with us til the end of our lives.”

The court is expected to hand down a judgment on four men accused of the MH17 mass murder of the 298 passengers and crew on the flight in late 2022. They are former Russian military commander Oleg Pulatov, former Russian military intelligence officials Igor Girkin and Sergey Dubinsky and separatist battalion leader Leonid Kharchenko, of Ukraine.