Prosecutors on Wednesday announced that four suspects, including three Russians, will face murder charges in the Netherlands over the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in 2014.<\/p>\n
The four men are suspected of bringing a missile launcher into eastern Ukraine and murdering the 298 passengers and crew who were en route from Amsterdam to the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur when the plane was shot down, the Dutch-led team investigating the case said.<\/p>\n
In a press conference, the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) named the suspects as Russian nationals Igor Girkin, Sergey Dubinskiy and Oleg Pulatov, and Ukrainian national Leonid Kharchenko.<\/p>\n
International arrest warrants were issued for the four men, the Dutch chief prosecutor Fred Westerbeke said.<\/p>\n
Girkin, Dubinskiy and Pulatov are thought to be currently residing in Russia, while Kharchenko is presumed to be living in eastern Ukraine.<\/p>\n
All three Russian suspects have served as members of Russian intelligence services, according to the JIT. Along with Kharchenko, they are thought to have formed a chain of command linking the rebel-held Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine to Russia.<\/p>\n
The four men are suspected of facilitating the transport of the Buk missile \u2014 the model determined by Dutch Safety Board to have brought down MH17 \u2014 from Russia to its launch site in eastern Ukraine.<\/p>\n