The following statement was released by the National Office of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America on July 17.
Six years ago, Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17), a scheduled passenger flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was shot down while flying over eastern Ukraine. All 283 passengers and 15 crew were killed by a Russian-made Buk surface-to-air missile launched from Russian-occupied territory in Ukraine. Today, the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA), the representative organization of the over 1.5 million Americans of Ukrainian descent, joins the world community in solemnly commemorating the tragic anniversary of the downing of MH17 and the 298 innocent lives lost on July 17, 2014.