There is enough evidence about the downing of Malaysian airliner MH17 in July 2014 over the Donbas collected by the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) to assert that the top leadership of Russia is responsible for the crash of the aircraft, Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Justice Serhiy Petukhov has said.

"Russia will be held responsible for shooting down the plane. The evidence collected and already published by the JIT is sufficient to state that the highest military and civilian leadership of Russia is responsible for this act of terrorism," Putukhov said, adding that the Verkhovna Rada should ratify the agreement with the Netherlands, which regulates the transfer of criminal proceedings to the Netherlands and international legal assistance in this investigation and the trial.

As reported, the Boeing 777 belonging to Malaysia Airlines flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) was shot out of the sky killing all 298 passengers on board.

The JIT, which is comprised of prosecutors and law-enforcement officials from Ukraine, the Netherlands, Belgium, Australia, and Malaysia, as well as EU legal officials, on September 28, 2016 presented its findings in the criminal investigation of the tragedy.

"The JIT has concluded that MH17 was downed by a rocket, Series 9M38, launched from a self-propelled ground-to-missile launcher BUK-TELAR, in a farming area in the region of Pervomaiske village. The area is currently held by pro-Russian militant groups. Investigators said missile complex was delivered to Ukraine from the Russian Federation and returned there after the downing," the findings said.

In early June 2017, the British investigative journalists group Bellingcat said it found a photo of the Buk 323 missile launcher of the Russian 53rd anti-aircraft missile brigade taken before the launcher was used to down the MH17 passenger flight in Donetsk region in 2014.