It is doubtful whether the people who shot down flight MH17 will be brought to justice, even if they are identified, the head of the Dutch safety board OVV says on the Volkskrant website.

‘It is going to be very complicated,’ Tjibbe Joustra told the paper. ‘Certain countries are not exactly keen to extradite their nationals.’ Russia is an example of an uncooperative country, Joustra said.

Earlier this week, the safety board published its own report into the cause of the disaster, in which 298 people were killed. The board said the plane, which was travelling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was brought down by a Buk missile, fired from within rebel-held areas in eastern Ukraine.

Joustra said he had no doubts the perpetrators would be identified. ‘How did the Buk launcher get there. Who ordered it? I expect it to be possible to make this clear,’ he told the Volkskrant.

Russia, Joustra said, is currently doing its utmost to discredit the OVV report. ‘They keep coming up with other stories and other speakers,’ he said. ‘I get the feeling they are trying to undermine the report and it does not matter which arguments they use.’

Joustra said the only reason for Russia’s actions that he could think of is that they ‘see problems ahead with the follow-up investigation’. The Dutch public prosecution department is now trying to find out exactly who was responsible for shooting down the plane.