Ukrainian investigators continue to work in the joint investigative group to investigate the MH17 disaster, an agreement to extend the work will be signed by the end of this week, said Prosecutor General of Ukraine Ruslan Riaboshapka.

"At the end of this week, it is planned to sign a continuation of the agreement on the investigation team, and we will also extend this agreement. Our prosecutors are fully represented in this investigation group, they are professional, they can cooperate and work competently in this investigation group," Riaboshapka told reporters in Kyiv on Monday, answering a question from the Interfax-Ukraine agency.

Some media outlets reported in February that six prosecutors involved in the investigation of the MH17 incident, including two members of the Joint Investigation Team, were fired in Ukraine in the course of the anti-corruption reform. The reports caused concern of Dutch parliamentarians but Dutch Justice Minister Ferdinand Grapperhaus assured them that the replacement of Ukrainian prosecutors would have no effect on the MH17 probe.

Riaboshapka said also that Ukraine was expecting the court to be fair in hearing the MH17 case. "We have no doubt that the ruling will be impartial and fair. [...] What do we expect? We expect every culprit behind this horrid crime to be punished," he said.

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 en route from Amsterdam, the Netherlands, to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, was downed in the Donetsk region of Ukraine on July 17, 2014. None of the 298 people on board survived.

The Joint Investigation Team (JIT), which includes law enforcement from Ukraine, the Netherlands, Belgium, Australia, and Malaysia, is probing the incident.

In September 2016, the JIT made public conclusions that the aircraft was downed by a missile fired from a Buk air defense missile system, and the JIT identified the ownership of the Buk missile a year ago. According to the JIT, the missile launcher belongs to the Russian 53rd Air Defense Missile Brigade, which is deployed in Kursk.

The JIT named four suspects in the MH17 crash: Russians Igor Girkin (aka Strelkov), Sergei Dubinsky, Oleg Pulatov, and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko. Dutch prosecutors plan to charge these individuals in the Boeing crash case.

The first court hearing in this case is scheduled to take place at the Justice Complex Schiphol on March 9.