The Hague, Netherlands - Three former senior pro-Russian separatists are guilty of shooting down passenger flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014, killing 298 people, a Dutch court has found.

A fourth defendant was acquitted.

The defendants – three Russians and one Ukrainian – were high-ranking separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine who obtained the missile that downed the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 jet.

The disaster tool place on July 17, 2014, amid heavy fighting between pro-Russia separatists and Ukrainian forces.

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The Malaysia Airlines plane was hit by a Russian Buk anti-aircraft missile while on its way from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur over contested territory in eastern Ukraine.

As most of the victims were from the Netherlands, the trial took place there.

The court pronounced the sentence in the absence of the defendants. Only the now acquitted man had been represented by lawyers.

It is considered unlikely that the convicts will serve their sentences. They are said to be in Russia and the country will not extradite them, experts said.

Russia has always denied any responsibility and, despite evidence to the contrary, blames Ukraine for the shooting-down of the aircraft.

Responding to the ruling, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for the "masterminds" of the tragedy to be held to account. "Punishment for all RF's [Russian Federation] atrocities then & now is inevitable," he tweeted.