The suspects are likely to be tried in absentia, however, as the Netherlands has said Russia has not co-operated with the investigation and is not expected to hand anyone over.
The Dutch-led international team tasked with assigning criminal responsibility for the plane's destruction named the four suspects as Russians Sergey Dubinsky, Oleg Pulatov and Igor Girkin, and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko. It said international arrest warrants for the four have been issued. MH17 was shot out of the sky on July 17 2014, over territory held by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine as it was flying from Amsterdam to the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur. Everyone on board was killed.
Most of those on board were Dutch. The joint investigation team formed by Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Ukraine found that the plane was shot down by a Russian missile. Last year Russian President Vladimir Putin called MH17's downing a"terrible tragedy" but said that Moscow was not to blame and that there are other explanations for what happened.