Dutch-led investigators have named four Russian-backed separatists as their first suspects for the shooting down in 2014 of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over east Ukraine.

The four men include former military officers who occupied senior positions in Russian-backed militias in east Ukraine that year, including Igor Girkin, who was named as minister of defence for the Donetsk People’s Republic.

The other suspects named, Sergei Dubinsky, Oleg Pulatov, and Leonid Kharchenko, were members of the separatists’ military intelligence unit. Several had previously been charged with committing acts of terrorism by Ukraine in 2017.

The absence of active-duty Russian soldiers, particularly those who commanded or transferred the missile system, could be taken with a sign of relief in Moscow. While soldiers are part of a chain of command leading up to Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, Moscow can more readily disavow the actions of its proxies in Ukraine.

Play Video 1:20 MH17: Four suspects named for shooting down plane – video

Criminal charges against the four men are expected to begin in the Netherlands in March 2020 but it is unlikely that any of the suspects will face justice in a Dutch court. Russia’s constitution forbids the extraditions of its citizens and Putin has previously criticised the investigation. Russia’s foreign ministry on Wednesday afternoon said that the accusations were designed to “discredit Russia in the eyes of the international community.”

Igor Girkin

Igor Girkin Photograph: Hollandse Hoogte/PA

A former colonel in Russia’s FSB who commanded the separatists was charged with obtaining the Buk missile system from Russia, Girkin, who also goes by the nom de guerre Strelkov, was an early leader of the armed groups that seized Crimea and then began fighting in east Ukraine. Notably, he led separatist armed forces fighting against Kyiv in the city of Sloviansk, before ceding the city in a retreat to Donetsk in July 2014.

Reached by telephone on Tuesday, Girkin declined to comment about the accusations and hung up. He told the Interfax news service he would not testify in the criminal case and claimed that his militia was not responsible for shooting down MH17.

A nationalist and military reenactment enthusiast, Girkin was known to stroll the halls of the Donetsk rebel headquarters with a vintage Stechkin pistol. He is also a former employee of the Russian businessman Konstantin Malofeev, who was sanctioned by the US in 2014 for “[funding] separatist activities in eastern Ukraine.”

Girkin fell out of favour with the Kremlin and rivals in east Ukraine and was eventually forced out of the country and back to Russia in August 2014. Living in relative obscurity and penury in Russia, he has become a vocal critic of the Kremlin for not applying more pressure and seizing more territory in Ukraine.

“Putin and his circle have recently taken steps which I believe will almost inevitably lead to the collapse of the system,” he told the Guardian in 2016. Recently he also recently attempted to sell the gold medal he was awarded in 2014 for his role in the occupation of Crimea.

Sergei Dubinsky

Sergei Dubinskiy. Photograph: Hollandse Hoogte/PA

A former Russian military intelligence officer who served in Afghanistan, Dubinsky has been accused of overseeing the transport of the Buk missile launcher used to down MH17. Born in Donetsk but living in Russia’s Rostov region, he headed the military intelligence of the Donetsk People’s Republic and was subordinate to Girkin. Identified as Khmury on intercepted phone calls, he directed subordinates to move the Buk missile along with tanks heading to support the militia’s fighters.

Reached by Whatsapp messenger, Dubinsky said he had seen the accusations by the JIT and had no intention of participating in the trial.

“I don’t believe in the objectivity of this investigation,” he added. Asked whether it was his voice in the phone recordings, he said: “Let them say what they will.” He said he would not give testimony in the trial either in the Netherlands or from Russia. “I don’t see any point,” he said.

Asked whether he wanted to clear his name, he said: “I know that neither I, nor my subordinates had any connection to MH17. That’s enough.”

In a 2014 interview with a pro-separatist blogger, Dubinsky claimed that his parents and grandparents were from Donetsk, and that his grandfather was a sniper in the Second World War. Dubinsky also claimed to have fought in North Ossetia and in Chechnya in the 1990s, where he met Girkin. He claimed to have retired from army service in April 2014, just a month before joining Strelkov in Sloviansk.

According to the investigative website Bellingcat, Dubinsky was an avid user of an online forum called Antikvariat, where users including Girkin discussed military history and antiques. He uploaded a photograph of himself in military uniform to the site. Novaya Gazeta later reported that Dubinsky had been expelled from the Donetsk People’s Republic for alleged financial fraud. He is believed to be living in Russia’s Rostov region.

Oleg Pulatov

Oleg Pulatov Photograph: Hollandse Hoogte/PA

A subordinate of Dubinsky, Pulatov, a former lieutenant colonel in the Russian armed forces, was also accused of escorting the Buk missile launcher. Described as another active user of the website antikvariat, he regularly blogged under the pseudonyms “viper” and “caliph” until he was identified by online users as Pulatov in 2017. Pulatov was born in the Russian city of Ulyanovsk, is a veteran of the Afghanistan and Chechen wars and left the Russian military in 2008.

Pulatov did not immediately respond to emails.

Online information gathered by Bellingcat indicates that he graduated from the MV Frunze military academy, in Kyiv, in 1990, after serving in Afghanistan. He received a letter of gratitude for his service from Putin in 2002.

Pulatov arrived in east Ukraine in 2014 and fought on and off until 2018, when he was imprisoned in the region of Luhansk. According to Bellingcat, he recently wrote on social media that he had moved back to Russia, without giving any further details.

Leonid Kharchenko

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Leonid Kharchenko Photograph: Hollandse Hoogte/PA

A Ukrainian citizen who went by the codename “Krot”, or mole, Kharchenko was also a member of the Donetsk People’s Republic’s “military intelligence” unit.

He served under the three other suspects and was suspected of handling the Buk missile and arranging for its transport. Little is known about his past, including any military career, although he confirmed in an interview with a pro-separatist media resource that he was born in the Ukrainian city of Konstantynovka in 1972.

In intercepted telephone conversations, Kharchenko confirmed to Dubinsky that the Buk had returned to Russia. His whereabouts are unknown.