The Netherlands and Australia say Russia shares responsibility for the disaster.
Russia says no anti-aircraft missile crossed the Russian-Ukrainian border.
June 2019: four charged
In June 2019, international investigators charge four people with murder -- Russian nationals Sergei Dubinsky, Igor Girkin and Oleg Pulatov and Ukraine's Leonid Kharchenko -- and set a March 2020 date for their trial in the Netherlands.
All four suspects are senior figures in the separatist self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic in eastern Ukraine.
Prosecutors say the four are responsible for bringing the BUK missile system from Russia into eastern Ukraine and positioning it on the launch site, "even though they have not pushed the button themselves."
Sept 2019: Key witness handed to Russia
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ignores the objections of the Netherlands in deciding to hand over Vladimir Tsemakh, a separatist fighter described by the Dutch as a key witness in the downing of the plane, to Russia as part of a major prisoner swap.
March 2020: trial starts
The two-and-a-half-year trial begins on March 2020 in a high-security court close to Schiphol international airport, from where the plane departed. None of the four suspects are present, with Russia refusing to extradite its citizens.
Dutch prosecutors accuse Moscow of casting a "dark shadow" over the proceeding by trying to track down witnesses and hack Dutch and Malaysian authorities.
They say the missile was most likely intended to strike a Ukrainian war plane and call for the four to be sentenced to life in prison.
While the trial is still ongoing Russia invades Ukraine.
November 2022: three convictions
The court convicts Girkin, Dubinsky and Kharchenko in absentia of murder and intentionally causing an aircraft to crash and sentences them to life in prison.
Pulatov is acquitted.
