Dutch Team To Pinpoint Launch Site Of Missile That Downed MH17

The Dutch-led team charged with determining who was responsible for the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine said it will determine soon the exact launch site of the missile that destroyed the plane.

After briefing relatives of the 298 people killed in the July 2014 crash, Fred Westerbeke, the prosecutor leading the international probe, said the investigators had obtained all the information they needed from the United States.

While the exact launch site of the missile should be known by summer, Westerbeke said he did not know when the criminal investigation would be completed.

But he pledged to finish the investigation "as quickly as possible, if only because of the frustration among the families."

A Dutch civil investigation previously concluded that the plane was downed by a Soviet-designed Buk surface-to-air missile.

Last week, the open-research group Bellingcat said it had evidence that Russian soldiers and officers were involved in firing the missile or had knowledge of who did it.

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