The judgment of the Dutch court on July 17, 2014, when passenger flight MH17 was shot down over Ukraine, is a reminder that Russia's war against Ukraine did not start with the invasion on February 24 of this year, but a good eight years ago.
The international investigators have meticulously reconstructed the events that took the lives of 298 civilians.
You have also examined the versions put forward by Russia - and refuted them.
Their confrontation with the investigators' findings can serve as a prime example of how the Kremlin's propaganda works.
The judgment as an impetus
The verdict itself has only symbolic meaning.
As long as the current Russian regime is in place, those convicted will not go to jail, as will all other Russian soldiers who have committed, and are believed to be committing, war crimes in the occupied territories of Ukraine.
The procedure for the shooting down of MH17 should serve as an impetus to start legal processing of these atrocities now.
In view of the extent of the crimes, there is nothing to prevent the creation of a special international tribunal before the fighting ends, which documents the facts and initiates the first proceedings against known perpetrators.
That would increase the chances that they would actually have to pay at some point.