RELATIVES of passengers killed when Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down over Ukraine gathered with officials at Australia’s Parliament House today to mark the 10th anniversary of the disaster that killed 298 people.

One of those relatives, Paul Guard, blames the conflict raging in eastern Ukraine a decade ago for the missile attack that killed his parents, Toowoomba doctors Roger and Jill Guard.

“I don’t think anyone intended to bring down a passenger plane. So in that sense, I’m heartbroken that the conflict continues,” Mr Guard told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

“But I think that a lot of families would really have just liked an acknowledgement that what happened was wrong and that Russia should not have been waging war,” he said.

Moscow has repeatedly denied responsibility for MH17’s destruction and refused to hand over two Russians and a Ukrainian convicted by a Dutch court in absentia in 2022 of murder.

Russia continues to face proceedings in the European Court of Human Rights and the International Civil Aviation Organisation Council over its alleged role in bringing down MH17.

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong told today’s service that the Australian government was committed to the “pursuit of truth, justice and accountability for the outrages perpetrated on July 17, 2014.”