MOSCOW, August 11 (Sputnik) — The investigative team on last year's Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crash in eastern Ukraine investigates several parts possibly originating from the Buk missile system, the Dutch Public Prosecution Service said in a statement Tuesday.
"In cooperation with the Dutch Safety Board (DSB) the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) investigates several parts, possibly originating from a Buk surface-air-missile system. These parts have been secured during a previous recovery-mission in Eastern-Ukraine and are in possession of the criminal investigation team MH17 and the DSB," the statement reads.
However, a conclusion that there is a causal connection between the discovered parts and the crash can currently not be drawn, according to the statement.
Flight MH17 crashed in the Donetsk countryside on July 17, 2014, en route to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Ukrainian government forces and local militias accuse each other of shooting down the passenger jet with 298 people on board. East Ukrainian militias claim they do not have weapons capable of felling aircraft at cruising altitude.
The DSB final report is due in October. Its preliminary report concluded last year that the aircraft broke up in mid-air after being hit by a number of high-energy objects.
In June, Russian arms manufacturer Almaz-Antey unveiled the results of an inquiry into the crash, showing that flight MH17 was downed by a guided missile launched by a Buk-M1 system. The particular missile has not been produced in Russia since 1999, but remains in service in the Ukrainian army, according to Almaz-Antey.
