“Malaysia 17, how do you read me?” The disaster of Flight MH17 began with an unanswered question: it would not be the last.

Just after 3.20pm Ukrainian air traffic controllers saw the passenger plane disappear from their radar. They immediately tried to make contact with the flight crew, but received no reply. Within 10 minutes the first reports of wreckage falling to the ground were coming in.

Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was cruising at 33,000ft when it was struck by a Buk missile fired by pro-Russian forces in the contested Donbas region of Ukraine. The missile exploded beside the cockpit, shredding the fabric of the aircraft and killing the pilots outright.

The 298 passengers and crew are thought to have lost consciousness almost instantly as a result of an explosive decompression that tore the aircraft into pieces as it descended. Just after 5.30pm Malaysia Alrlines confirmed on Twitter that it had lost contact with Flight MH17.

War had broken out three months earlier when a unit led by Russian commander Igor Girkin seized the town of Sloviansk and established the Donetsk People’s Republic. Several airlines had taken the decision to avoid eastern Ukraine because of the fighting, but airspace remained open above 32,000ft. Flight MH17 had taken off from Schiphol at 12.13pm, thirteen minutes behind schedule, and deviated from its original flight path to avoid a storm.

Moscow denied responsibility for the collision and has offered a series of outlandish alternative explanations. The missile had been fired by the Ukrainians; it was not fired from the ground at all, but by a Ukrainian fighter jet; Flight MH17 was destroyed by a bomb on board.

Russian president Vladimir Putin claimed the aircraft would never have been in danger if Ukrainian forces had not launched an offensive against Russian forces. The scant evidence Russia produced was largely debunked as fakes, often by open-source investigators such as Bellingcat.

After Russia vetoed a Malaysian plan for an international tribunal, Igor Girkin and three other members of the Russian militia in Donbas went on trial at the high-security court at Schiphol in March 2020.

Two and a half years later, three of them – Girkin, Sergey Dubinskiy and Leonid Kharchenko – were found guilty of mass murder, sentenced to life in jail and ordered to pay €16 million compensation to the victims. None of them attended the court hearings or has served a day in prison, though Girkin was jailed in Russia earlier this year after being convicted of “inciting extremism”.

The Joint Investigation Team closed its case, but unanswered questions remain. The court was unable to establish who gave the order to fire the missile or who the crew on the ground were.

Investigators also said there were “strong indications” that Putin himself signed the order to send the missile to Donbas that brought down Flight MH17. But they said there was not enough clear evidence linking Putin to the chain of command. Besides, they noted, as president of the Russian Federation he is “immune under international law from prosecution”.

Here is a timeline of events from July 17, 2014 to the present day.

July 17, 2014

12.13pm: Flight MH17 takes off from Schiphol airport for Kuala Lumpur with a 13-minute delay due to passengers joining late from a connecting flight. The Boeing 777 is due to fly eastwards over Germany, Poland and Ukraine.

3.00pm: The plane is diverted 37km to the north to avoid bad weather. The pilots are told to climb to 35,000ft over Dnipropetrovsk, but ask to stay at 33,000ft to avoid another passenger plane on an adjacent flight path. Ukrainian air traffic control grant the request.

3.20pm: A Buk missile fired from the ground explodes beside the cockpit, shattering the front of the plane and killing the pilots. The aircraft loses power and plunges towards the ground. Ukrainian air traffic control tries to contact the crew but receives no response.

3.30pm: Reports begin to appear on social media of fragments of a plane and bodies of passengers landing in a 50 km2 area around the village of Hrabove.

5.00pm: Russian press agency Interfax reports that a passenger plane has been shot down over Ukraine. It quickly becomes clear the aircraft took off from Amsterdam.

5.36pm: Malaysia Airlines confirms on Twitter that it has lost contact with Flight MH17 in Ukrainian airspace. It says 295 people were on board, including 193 Dutch, 43 Malaysian and 27 Australians. The number is later amended to 298 to include three Dutch infants who were travelling on adults’ laps.

9.45pm: Prime minister Mark Rutte gives a press conference, having left his holiday to return to the Netherlands. “The whole of the Netherlands is in mourning,” he says.

July 20

Rescue workers arrive at the crash site to begin the task of recovering the bodies. The area is deemed too dangerous for Dutch investigators and military police to enter because of the ongoing fighting.

July 23

The first human remains are flown back to Eindhoven airport before being transported in a single-file convoy to military barracks in Hilversum, to be identified and examined. The short ceremony at the airport will be repeated nine times over the following 10 months.

The Netherlands declares a national day of mourning, the first in its history.

July 21

Russia publishes satellite images purporting to show that Ukrainian Buk launchers were close enough to have fired the missile. An analysis by open-source investigation team Bellingcat later finds the images were taken a month before the disaster and subsequently doctored.

July 22

Foreign affairs minister Frans Timmermans condemns the slow pace of the recovery and reports that evidence is being tampered with, claiming a “political game … is being played with human remains”.

August 7

The Netherlands, Australia, Belgium and Ukraine establish a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) to identify and prosecute those responsible for shooting down the plane. Malaysia joins the team in December.

September 9

A preliminary report by the Dutch Safety Board finds that the Boeing 777 was hit by a “large number of high-energy projectiles”, consistent with a strike by a Buk missile.

September 26

Rutte tells the UN general assembly in New York of the pain the whole country feels. “The perpetrators must be brought to justice, however complex and time-consuming this may be,” he says.

November 11

Dutch accident investigators return to the crash site, but are unable to begin recovering the wreckage of the plane because of the ongoing conflict.

November 16

More than 600 relatives of victims attend the official ceremony of remembrance at the RAI in Amsterdam, along with king Willem-Alexander, queen Máxima and other members of the royal family.

March 30, 2015

The JIT releases footage of a Buk missile system being transported through eastern Ukraine and recordings of telephone conversations. It appeals for witnesses and evidence about the identity of those who ordered and launched the missile.

July 19

Russia vetoes a United Nations resolution tabled by Malaysia calling for an international tribunal to be set up for MH17. US ambassador to the UN Samantha Power says: “Russia has callously disregarded the public outcry in the grieving nations.”

June 6, 2016

The JIT publishes a photograph of the nozzle of a Russian-made Buk missile recovered from the crash site.

September 28

The JIT’s initial investigation concludes that the plane was shot down by a missile fired from the ground. It rules out the possibilities that the crash was caused by a technical failure, a terrorist attack on board or a shooting by another aircraft.

October 3

Rutte tells Russia to stop “spreading all sorts of nonsense” undermining the investigation into MH17.

October 26

Russia hands over missing radar images from July 17, 2014 to the JIT, claiming that they show the plane was not shot down by a missile fired by Russian-controlled territory.

July 5, 2017

The JIT says suspects in the case can be tried in the Netherlands under Dutch law. The five countries rule out setting up an international court because of their different legal systems.

July 17

A permanent memorial to the victims of MH17, a steel upward-looking eye surrounded by a ribbon wood of 298 trees, is unveiled at a ceremony in Vijfhuizen, near Amsterdam.

May 24, 2018

The international team investigating the disaster says the Buk missile originated from a unit of the Russian army based in Kursk. Dutch foreign minister Stef Blok says the next day that the Netherlands and Australia are holding Russia liable.

May 25

Bellingcat says it has identified a second Russian official who played a major role in downing MH17. It says telephone taps show Oleg Ivannikov was directly involved in transporting the Buk missile system to Ukraine.

June 5

Russian president Vladimir Putin attacks the “partiality” of the joint investigation team and claims it is ignoring evidence from his country’s scientists. “Justice can only be done if Russian researchers are allowed to take part,” he says.

September 17

Russia holds a press conference claiming it has evidence that the Buk missile fell into Ukrainian hands following the break-up of the Soviet Union. Dutch prosecutors accuse Russia of violating UN security council resolution 2166, intended to guarantee “a full, thorough and independent international investigation into the incident”.

June 19, 2019

Four suspects are named by prosecutors as being responsible for shooting down the plane and summoned to appear in court in The Hague on March 9, 2020. The prosecution service acknowledges there is little chance of them appearing in a courtroom.

Bellingcat produces a report identifying 12 people it says were involved in the disaster.

March 9, 2020

Three Russian military commanders – Igor Girkin, Sergey Dubinskij and Oleg Pulatov – and one Ukrainian, Leonid Kharchenko – go on trial at the high-security court at Schiphol accused of shooting down Flight MH17. None of the men appear in person and only Pulatov is represented by lawyers.

More than 500 journalists from around the world attend the first day of hearings, despite the outbreak of Covid-19 and the start of lockdown restrictions.

April 28

Bellingcat says it has identified Colonel General Andrey Burlaka, a senior official in the Russian secret service FSB, as the man who authorised the transportation of the Buk missile.

July 10

The Dutch government says it is bringing a case against Russia at the European Court of Human Rights to achieve “truth, justice and accountability” for the victims.

December 22, 2021

Prosecutors in the criminal trial demand life sentences for the four defendants. “The accused knew that they would be putting civilians in danger,” prosecutor Thijs Berger says.

March 14, 2022

The Netherlands and Australia begin legal proceedings at the United Nations civil aviation authority ICAO to hold Russia accountable for the attack.

March 30

Lawyers for Oleg Pulatov call for him to be acquitted by the judges hearing the MH17 trial, arguing there is no evidence that he was involved in the decision to shoot down the plane.

November 17

Igor Girkin, Sergey Dubinskiy and Leonid Kharchenko are found guilty of mass murder and sentenced to life in jail. The court finds there is an ‘overwhelming amount of evidence’ that MH17 was brought down by a Buk missile. They are also ordered to pay €16 million in compensation to the victims’ families. Oleg Pulatov is acquitted.

January 25, 2023

The European Court of Human Rights rules that three cases brought against Russia by Ukraine and the Netherlands are partially admissible, including the downing of MH17.

February 8

The JIT winds up its investigation. It says there are “strong indications” Putin authorised the transport of the Buk missile to Donbas, but not enough clear evidence to implicate him. It does not accuse Putin of giving the order to fire.

Rutte says it is “now clear” that Putin had a hand in the downing of the plane.

June 9

Russia claims during a hearing at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague that the plane could have been destroyed by a bomb on board.

January 25, 2024

Igor Girkin is jailed for four years by a court in Moscow for “inciting extremism” by criticising the Kremlin’s strategy in Ukraine.

February 1

The ICJ rejects a request from Ukraine to hold Russia responsible for downing Flight MH17 under its terrorism convention.

June 30

Rutte says in his televised farewell message that the downing of MH17 was “perhaps the most intense and most emotional event” during his 14 years as prime minister.