The postal service of the Netherlands has been forced to apologize for a satirical stamp depicting a passenger aircraft being hit mid-air with a football, which was released to mark the World Cup but was apparently inspired by the shooting down of Malaysian flight MH17 by a suspected Russian missile four years ago.

All 298 passengers and crew were killed when the aircraft was struck over eastern Ukraine on 17 July 2014, the majority of them Dutch nationals.

The illustration was originally created by a Ukrainian artist as a way of attacking Russia and its hosting of the World Cup. Anyone can submit stamp designs to PostNL, according to Dutch broadcaster NOS, which reported the story, giving a Dutch contributor the opportunity to post the image.

The picture on the stamp showed the football striking and exploding against a high-flying jet, mimicking how Dutch-led international investigators believe a Russian-owned BUK anti-aircraft missile exploded next the to the Malaysian aircraft, after being fired from territory controlled by Russian-backed separatists.