MH17 investigators want to speak to Ukrainian prisoner

Dutch prosecutors investigating the downing five years ago of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine want to speak to a man being held by Ukrainian authorities, calling him a “person of interest” in their probe.

The fate of Volodymyr Tsemakh could be a factor in the stalled prisoner swap between Russia and Ukraine as Dutch prosecutors want him to remain in Ukraine.

Brechtje van de Moosdijk, a spokeswoman for the Joint Investigation Team investigating the downing by a surface-to-air Buk missile of the Malaysian flight on July 17, 2014, said Tuesday that Tsemakh is currently in a Ukrainian jail, “but if he’s being swapped then, well of course it’s hard to say that we can speak to him when he would be in Russia.”