Chervonyi Zhovten: Villagers in eastern Ukraine have said they saw a missile flying directly overhead just before a Malaysian airliner, Malaysian Airlines MH17, was shot out of the sky on July 17 last year, providing the most detailed accounts to date that suggest it was fired from territory held by pro-Russian rebels.

The accounts from four villagers of Chervonyi Zhovten, which was then, and is now, controlled by the rebels, are significant because they indicate the rocket was in the early stages of its flight path.

Inspecting the wreckage of a passenger plane, flight MH17, in Ukraine last year. Credit:AP

That would mean it must have been launched from rebel ground nearby, challenging the suggestion of Moscow and the separatists that the plane was brought down by the Ukrainian military. At the time, the nearest Ukrainian-held area was about six kilometres away.

Ukraine and its Western allies have said it was the rebels who shot down the airliner, using a Russian-made Buk anti-aircraft missile system. All 298 people on board were killed, including 27 Australians.