Australia, Malaysia, Netherlands to mark MH17 anniversary next month

Melbourne: Australia, Netherlands and Malaysia will hold memorial services next month to mark the first anniversary of the shooting down of a Malaysia Airlines plane over Ukraine, which claimed 298 lives, Australia's Prime Minister said on Monday.

"A National Memorial Service in Canberra will take place on Friday July 17, 2015, the first anniversary of the downing of Flight MH17," Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said in a statement. "The Service will honour those who lost their lives in this atrocity, and thank to those who were involved in the recovery and investigation process," Abbott said.

"It will be a time to show support to those still grieving. All Australians mourned the loss of Flight MH17," he said. "There were 298 innocent people on this aircraft and their deaths outraged our sense of justice," Abbott said.

"One year on, we will remember all those who died especially the men, women, and children who called Australia home," he said. He said that the Australian National Flag will be flown at half-mast on all government establishments on July 17 as a mark of respect.

The government will also unveil a plaque in the House of Representatives' gardens in Canberra with the names of those whose lives were tragically taken. This will serve as a permanent reminder that we will never, ever forget the innocent victims of Flight MH17.

The Boeing 777 was shot down when it flew from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur which was the second of two disasters that struck the troubled airline last year after Flight 370 with 239 people on board went missing on March 8 last year while enroute from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Ukraine and the West suspect Flight MH17 was destroyed by a Russian surface-to-air missile fired.

The Russian maker of the Buk air defence missile system this month concluded that Flight 17 was downed by an older version of the missile, which is not in service with the Russian military but is in Ukrainian arsenals.