European Rights Court Backs Collective Action Against Russia Over MH17 Downing

'We can now confirm to you receipt by the Court’s Registry of the application in question, lodged against Russia on behalf of 95 individuals who claim that they are relatives of persons who died when flight MH17 was downed', the court said in a statement.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has repeatedly stated that there was no evidence of Russia’s alleged role in the air disaster, which claimed 298 lives. The ministry accused the Dutch-led investigation of bias while the Russian Defence Ministry noted that the missile that downed Flight MH17 had been in Ukraine's arsenal since 1986.

Militants in Eastern Ukraine, blamed for the downing along with Russia, denied, in turn, that they had such advanced weaponry.

READ MORE: Malaysia's Prime Minister Says Heard About, Has Not Seen New Documents on MH17

The Boeing 777 was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was brought down near the city of Donetsk by what an international group of investigators said was a Russian-made Buk missile originating with a military brigade stationed in the Russian city of Kursk.

Reacting to this, the Russian Defense Ministry in September presented declassified files on the Buk missile that hit flight MH17 in 2014, showing that the missile was made at Russia's Dolgoprudny Plant in 1986, delivered to a military unit in Ukraine and remained in the country after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.