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Dutch prosecutors announced Tuesday they may have found parts of a BUK missile system at the crash site of MH17 in eastern Ukraine. Above, a man rides his bicycle past the wreckage of the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, near the village of Hrabove (Grabovo) in Donetsk region, in this Dec. 15, 2014, file photo. Reuters/Maxim Shemetov

Possible parts of a Russian missile system have been found in eastern Ukraine at the site where flight MH17 crashed in July 2014. It was the first physical evidence that a missile strike could have downed the Malaysia Airlines flight, which was en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.

The parts could belong to a BUK missile system, the Associated Press reported. The fragments "are of particular interest to the criminal investigation as they can possibly provide more information about who was involved in the crash of MH17," Dutch prosecutors said in a statement Tuesday. They were careful to add that they were not establishing a "causal connection between the discovered parts and the crash of flight MH17."

All 298 on board were killed when MH17 crashed near the Russian-Ukrainian border. Many suspected that the civilian plane was shot down by separatist rebels backed by Russia.

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