There are “robust indications” that President Vladimir V. Putin determined to produce the antiaircraft missile system that Russia-backed separatists used to shoot down a Malaysia Airways jet above japanese Ukraine in 2014, a Dutch-led worldwide group discovered.

However the group stated on Wednesday that it had suspended its prison investigation due to inadequate proof and immunity privileges that stop new prosecutions within the crash of Flight MH17, which killed all 298 folks aboard.

The investigators famous that no proof means that Mr. Putin ordered that the plane be shot down and that he was, in any case, protected against prosecution beneath Dutch legislation as a result of he enjoys immunity as a head of state.

“The investigation has now reached its limits,” Dutch prosecutor Digna van Boetzelaer stated at a information convention. “All leads have been exhausted.”

The announcement got here almost three months after a Dutch courtroom convicted three males with ties to the Russian safety providers for his or her roles in capturing down the airplane whereas they have been a part of separatist forces in japanese Ukraine.

The worldwide group of investigators continued to look into who was liable for offering the weapons. On Wednesday, investigators offered new proof, together with cellphone intercepts that confirmed ties between the Russian army and the separatists, and advised that supply of the missile system was delayed as a result of Mr. Putin had been collaborating in a World Conflict II commemoration in France.

“He’s the one one who makes the choice, no one else,” the audio intercept stated. The intercept appeared to verify that the surface-to-air missile used to shoot down the airplane was trucked in from Russia on the request of the separatists.

Ms. van Boetzelaer stated that “secondhand info was obtained concerning the doable involvement of three present or former officers” of the Russian army. However the investigation group couldn’t set up that with certainty, nor may it specify who gave the order to separatist forces to fireside the missile.

The findings “don’t present enough floor for prosecution,” Ms. van Boetzelaer stated, “as a result of the proof that has been gathered will not be robust sufficient to be lawful and convincing.”

She added that Russian army members “could possibly declare combatant immunity,” a rule in worldwide legislation that bars the prosecution of members of the armed forces of a state, aside from conflict crimes.

Russia-backed separatists invaded japanese Ukraine in 2014, starting a long-simmering battle that predated Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. The crash of MH17 in July 2014 was by far the most important lack of civilian life within the battle as much as that time. Most of the victims have been Dutch; the flight additionally carried passengers from Australia, Britain, Malaysia and different nations.

Many victims’ households have drawn a direct connection between the crash and the present conflict, suggesting that the West’s failure to strongly punish Moscow in 2014 helped allow its full-scale invasion.

The Kremlin didn’t instantly reply to the assertion by investigators. In November, Russia’s Overseas Ministry referred to as the trial through which the three males have been convicted politically motivated.