MH17 plane 'was brought down by Russian military missile', investigators say

The missile that brought down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine four years ago was from a Russian military convoy, Dutch investigators have said.

Detailed analysis of video images has now established that the Buk missile which hit the plane came from a Russian-based military unit.

All 298 passengers and crew died when the plane came down over eastern Ukraine on 17 July 2014.

Wilbert Paulissen, of the Dutch National Police, said the missile was from the Russian military's 53rd anti-aircraft missile brigade based in the city of Kursk.

The team recreated the route taken by the missile convoy from Kursk across the border using videos and images.

"All the vehicles in a convoy carrying the missile were part of the Russian armed forces," Mr Paulissen told a televised news conference.

He was speaking at a presentation of interim results of the long-running investigation into the downing of flight.

Russia's defence ministry said it had nothing to do with the downing of the jet.

The Russian military denied that any Russian missile complex had ever crossed the border between Russia and Ukraine, TASS news agency reported.

The Boeing 777 jet was heading from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, when it was blown out of the sky.

Dutch investigators are focusing on some 100 people suspected of having played an "active role" in the incident, but they have not yet publicly named any of them.

Chief investigator Fred Westerbeke said the probe was now in its "last phase" but added there was "still work to be done".

Over the past years "we've gained a lot of proof and evidence but we are not ready yet" to move towards bringing charges, he told the news conference.

Dutch officials have announced that the trial of any suspects arrested in the shooting down of flight MH17 will be held in the Netherlands, under an agreement reached with the countries leading the joint probe.