The international prosecutor’s office said on Wednesday it had found “compelling evidence” that Russian President Vladimir Putin approved Ukraine’s use of the Russian missile system that shot down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014, Reuters reported.

However, they said the evidence implicating Putin and other Russian officials was insufficient to lead to a criminal conviction and that they would close the investigation without further prosecution.

Russia denies any involvement in the downing of a civilian airliner that killed 298 passengers and crew members.

The investigation is over

“The investigation has come to an end,” prosecutor Digna van Botzeler said at a press conference in The Hague. “The findings are not enough to prosecute new suspects.”

In November, a Dutch court found two former agents of Russian special services and a Ukrainian separatist leader guilty of murder for using a Russian BUK missile system to shoot down a plane. The three men who were tried in absentia are still at large.

At the time the plane was shot down, Ukrainian forces were fighting Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region.

Although Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in March 2014, it has denied military involvement in the fighting in Donetsk.

But in sentencing the three men in November, a Dutch court ruled that Russia had effectively had “overall control” over separatist forces in Donetsk since May 2014.

Prosecutors said Wednesday they could not identify the exact soldiers responsible for using the missile system that downed the plane, which belonged to Russia’s 53rd Brigade in Kursk.

Evidence of investigators

They cited wiretapping of Russian officials in 2014 as evidence that Putin’s approval was needed to approve the separatists’ request for the equipment.

In addition, they recreated a 2017 conversation between Putin and the Russian-appointed head of Ukraine’s Luhansk region, which discussed the military situation and the exchange of prisoners.

Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 in what it calls a “special military operation” and in September said it had annexed Donetsk and three other Ukrainian regions.

Moscow denies any involvement

Moscow has always denied its involvement and blamed Ukraine for the disaster.

Pete Ploeg, who runs a fund that represents victims, said he was disappointed that the investigation had ended but was pleased that prosecutors had presented their evidence implicating Putin.

“We cannot do much with her, Putin cannot be brought to justice. We wanted to know who was ultimately responsible, and that’s understandable,” he said.

Among the victims of flight MH17 are Ploega’s brother, his brother’s wife and his nephew.

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