Nearly all members of 53rd Air Defense Brigade that convoyed Buk identified, - Bellingcat's Higgins on downed flight MH17

The Bellingcat Investigation Team, which carries out its own investigation into the crash of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 (MH17) in July 2014 in Ukraine's Donbas, has established the names of almost all the Russian military that convoyed the missile launcher to Ukrainian border.

Team's founder Eliot Higgins said in an interview with Radio Liberty, Censor.NET reports.

"We've been able to identify nearly all the members of the 53rd Air Defense Brigade which was in this convoy that took this missile launcher to the Ukrainian border," Higgins said, adding that the international investigators "might have a lot more information."

"But MH17 is really part of a broader story and that's Russia's involvement in the conflict in Ukraine," he remarked, noting that Russia sent troops and hardware to Ukraine and supported separatists' attacks by artillery fire delivered from within its territory.

"Ultimately the person who made the decision to send Russian troops to Ukraine is going to be the head of the Russian army, which is Vladimir Putin," Higgins added.

As previously reported, Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777, flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was shot down in the Donetsk region July 17, 2014. 298 people died in the crash. The passengers were citizens of 10 countries. The majority of victims (196) were Dutch citizens.