--- title: Malaysia Airlines Crash: Ukraine to Hand Over Investigation to Dutch description: The Netherlands suffered the most fatalities in the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur canonical: https://time.com/3012477/malaysia-airlines-ukraine-crash-dutch-investigation/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-07-21T13:34:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T09:15:19.581Z article:section: Politics og:title: Malaysia Airlines Crash: Ukraine to Hand Over Investigation to Dutch og:description: The Netherlands suffered the most fatalities in the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur og:url: https://time.com/3012477/malaysia-airlines-ukraine-crash-dutch-investigation/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9748ad3dfea48106/69869c8113c79f3b521932bd/mh17.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Personnel from the Ukrainian Emergencies Ministry load the bodies of victims of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 into a truck at the crash site on July 21, 2014 in Grabovo, Ukraine. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Malaysia Airlines Crash: Ukraine to Hand Over Investigation to Dutch twitter:description: The Netherlands suffered the most fatalities in the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9748ad3dfea48106/69869c8113c79f3b521932bd/mh17.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Ukraine Ready to Hand MH17 Investigation Over to Dutch > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Jul 21, 2014 1:34 PM UTC  Personnel from the Ukrainian Emergencies Ministry load the bodies of victims of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 into a truck at the crash site on July 21, 2014 in Grabovo, Ukraine. Personnel from the Ukrainian Emergencies Ministry load the bodies of victims of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 into a truck at the crash site on July 21, 2014 in Grabovo, Ukraine. Brendan Hoffman—Getty Images by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Jul 21, 2014 1:34 PM UTC Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk [said Monday](http://online.wsj.com/articles/dutch-forensic-experts-make-their-way-to-crash-site-1405932367) the country is prepared to let Dutch authorities take over the investigation into the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. The deal to let the Dutch continue the investigation is an effort to end the standoff between the Ukrainian government and Russia-backed separatist groups over who can access the crash site. “We are responding to the request of our Dutch partners. They launched the request. The Dutch people suffered the most,” Mr. Yatsenyuk said Monday, the [Wall Street](http://online.wsj.com/articles/dutch-forensic-experts-make-their-way-to-crash-site-1405932367)[ _Journal_](http://online.wsj.com/articles/dutch-forensic-experts-make-their-way-to-crash-site-1405932367) reports. “This is the right thing to do. This is a humanitarian gesture. It will add more independence to the investigation.” Dutch investigators began arriving in Eastern Ukraine on Monday, [USA](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/07/21/malaysia-russia-ukraine-putin-united-nations/12930557/)[ _Today_ ](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/07/21/malaysia-russia-ukraine-putin-united-nations/12930557/)reports, to begin the grim task of inspecting the bodies of victims who have been moved to refrigerated train cars by the separatists. The crashed flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, which the U.S. says was shot down by Ukrainian rebels using weapons provided by Russia, left 298 people dead on Thursday, the majority of whom were from the Netherlands. Since the crash, the rebels who control the area have limited government access to the crash site for an official investigation. Over the weekend, rebel forces moved bodies and other evidence from the crash site. The Dutch Safety Board told the [_WSJ_](http://online.wsj.com/articles/dutch-forensic-experts-make-their-way-to-crash-site-1405932367) Monday they were still in the process of discussing taking over the investigation. Experts from across the globe are also in the country with hopes of investigating the crash. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3012477/malaysia-airlines-ukraine-crash-dutch-investigation/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3012477/malaysia-airlines-ukraine-crash-dutch-investigation/"},"headline":"Ukraine Ready to Hand MH17 Investigation Over to Dutch","datePublished":"2014-07-21T13:34:12.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T09:15:19.581Z","description":"The Netherlands suffered the most fatalities in the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur","url":"https://time.com/3012477/malaysia-airlines-ukraine-crash-dutch-investigation/","keywords":["Ukraine","russia","#MH17","Malaysia Airlines Flight 17","Flight MH17"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9748ad3dfea48106/69869c8113c79f3b521932bd/mh17.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9748ad3dfea48106/69869c8113c79f3b521932bd/mh17.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Personnel from the Ukrainian Emergencies Ministry load the bodies of victims of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 into a truck at the crash site on July 21, 2014 in Grabovo, Ukraine.","caption":"Personnel from the Ukrainian Emergencies Ministry load the bodies of victims of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 into a truck at the crash site on July 21, 2014 in Grabovo, Ukraine.","creditText":"Brendan Hoffman—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3012477/malaysia-airlines-ukraine-crash-dutch-investigation/","name":"Ukraine Ready to Hand MH17 Investigation Over to Dutch"}}]}] ```