As MH17’s anniversary nears, families of victims in 2014 tragedy blast Russia’s Ukraine war
- Russia’s attack on Ukraine has opened old wounds for the loved ones of the 298 people who died aboard flight MH17 after pro-Russian rebels gunned it down in 2014
- ‘They killed my sister and many others who had nothing to do with its conflict and now they are killing innocent civilians in Ukraine’, distraught relative said
The pain of their loved ones’ deaths when they fell from the skies onto fields of sunflowers was slowly easing.
But when Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, images of innocent Ukrainian civilians killed by Russian bombs and guns burst open old wounds, reigniting the senselessness of the deaths of 298 people aboard flight MH17.
I once again could see the burning wreckage and feel the pain … in recent years, I was beginning to forget and the hurt was slowly fading
With Russia intensifying fighting in eastern Ukraine, including the Donetsk region where the wreckage of MH17 was found, Indonesian Enny Nuraheni is transported back to the time her sister Ninik Yuriani died.
“I once again could see the burning wreckage and feel the pain … while in recent years, I was beginning to forget and the hurt was slowly fading,” said Enny, a former chief photographer for Reuters Jakarta who has covered many disasters and conflicts during her career.
“Russia is most evil. They killed my sister and so many other passengers who had nothing to do with its conflict, and now they are killing innocent civilians in Ukraine in a very unfair war where Russia is much stronger than Ukraine,” Enny said.
Her sister Ninik, 57, worked in Eindhoven city in the Netherlands and was returning to Indonesia to celebrate Eid with the family.
