Trump and Putin are meeting on the eve of the anniversary of MH17 being shot down by Russia

(Image credit: MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP/Getty Images)

published 29 June 2018

President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin's Helsinki summit was chosen to fall on a day when Trump would already be in Europe and Putin would be free from his World Cup final obligations in Moscow. The day that was picked, though — July 16 — is the day before the anniversary of a Malaysia Airlines flight being shot down over eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014.

European investigators announced this spring that a Russia-based unit downed MH17, killing all 298 people on board, although Russia has denied the charges and Kremlin-linked publications have claimed without plausibility that Ukraine shot the plane down. Russia used its veto power in the United Nations to prevent an international tribunal from assembling to prosecute whoever was found responsible for the tragedy.

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.

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