Commemorations marking the anniversary of the shooting down of flight MH17 have been thrown into controversy as a ceremony at the crash site in eastern Ukraine turned into a flag-waving protest by pro-Russian separatists.

Dozens of locals turned out at a memorial near the small village where MH17 crashed after being hit by a surface-to-air missile on 17 July last year, killing all 298 people on board.

Flags of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) obscured those of the grieving nations, one of which was incorrect (a Polish flag instead of an Indonesia one). Signs sought to politicise the mourning.

This memorial to the MH17 victims, erected by DNR members, reads: ‘Here 298 innocent people were killed in the civil war’. Photograph: Geraldine Cremin

One sign pointed the finger at the Ukrainian authorities, saying “They killed you, they continue to kill us”. Another sought to relativise the death toll, saying: “Donbass – 4,906 dead, Boeing 777 – 298 dead”. A third said “Kiev, stop shooting”.

When asked by a translator to comment on the sign he was holding, one man shrugged and recited the slogan. One of those present said of a group of flag-waving teenagers: “They are youth DNR. They aren’t even from this village, they come in just to hold the flag.”

There was little emotion in the crowd as they waited over two hours for the arrival of Alexander Zakharchenko. His arrival, along with a convoy of security, elicited weak applause.

The ceremony lasted about 20 minutes. There was no mention of the victims or their nationalities. The presentations were almost entirely centred on blame and politics.

As soon as the commemoration was over, participants handed their flags and signs back to a DNR member who collected them all, with the international flags in a pile.



Elsewhere, relatives and friends of the 298 dead passengers and crew, gathered at ceremonies in the Netherlands, Australia and other countries to mark the single deadliest episode of the Ukraine war.

Family members read moving eulogies and flags on Dutch government buildings around the country were flying at half-mast throughout the day. With 196 victims, the Netherlands was the hardest-hit nation in the disaster.