BUK missile manufacturer loses lawsuit on EU sanctions. Court finds Russian weapons were delivered to Ukraine.

The General Court of the European Union has ruled that sanctions against Russian air defense systems manufacturer Almaz-Antey are legal. The company had initiated the lawsuit to challenge EU Council’s freezing of its assets.

In its decision, the Court noted that the EU Council had provided sufficient evidence to show that Russia had sent arms to separatists in eastern Ukraine. The Court ruled that, as a manufacturer of Russia’s weapons, Almaz-Antey had indirectly supported the violation of Ukraine’s territorial integrity.

The court also noted that the EU Council was not obliged to prove that Almaz-Antey had manufactured the specific weapons used by separatists. The court also clarified that the decision to impose sanctions against the company was not tied to the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in June 2014, though the company had manufactured the BUK missile that, according to investigators, had hit the airliner.

Sanctions against Almaz-Antey were introduced in the summer of 2014 as part of a second round of sanctions against Russia in connection with the conflict in the south-east of Ukraine.

Russia denies both its involvement in the conflict and the supply of weapons to pro-Russian separatists controlling parts of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions of Ukraine.

On July 17, 2014, Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 flying over the Donetsk region was shot down. All 298 people aboard the airplane died. An international investigation team concluded that the airplane had been hit by a BUK missile which had recently arrived from Russia.