Three years after Flight MH17 was shot down by a missile over war-torn Ukraine, nearly 2,000 relatives gathered yesterday to unveil a "living memorial" to their loved ones. A total of 298 trees, one for each of the victims who died on board the Malaysia Airlines flight en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, have been planted in the shape of a green ribbon. Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima joined government and international officials at a solemn ceremony to dedicate the memorial in the park of Vijfhuizen, close to Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, from where the flight took off on July 17, 2014. A national monument was also unveiled. The glistening steel structure, shaped like an eye and set before a dark wall, bears the names of the victims. A mourning ceremony, led by an Orthodox priest, was conducted yesterday at the site where the plane crashed near the village of Grabovo, around 100km east of Donetsk, Ukraine. International investigators have said the plane was brought down by a Buk missile system fired from territory held by Moscow-backed rebels.