NEW human remains and debris from the Malaysian Airlines MH17 shot down over rebel-occupied eastern Ukraine more than three years ago has been handed over to Dutch investigators.

All 298 passengers and crew died when the Boeing-777 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was hit by a Russian-made missile on 17 July 2014.

The official probe led by the Netherlands concluded the aircraft was hit by a Buk missile fired from territory controlled by pro-Vladimir Putin rebels using a weapons system that had been transported from Russia.

There is likely to be surprise over the belated discovery of human remains - which are bone fragments - and plane debris along with the alleged evidence of a Ukrainian Buk so long after intensive searches of the crash site.

"Investigators have new data, confirming a missile launch from a Buk missile system from the area outside the settlement of Zaroshchinskoye, in the Shakhtersky district, which was controlled by the Ukrainian army at the moment of the crash," said a Roman Belous, a senior prosecutor's office investigator in the so-called Donestsk People's Republic (DPR).

"We have just handed over the wreckage and, presumably, the remains of the MH17 crash victims to the authorised representatives of the Netherlands."

The rebel officials did not specify the nature or extent of the human remains.

Not did they explain exactly what "evidence" they have of a Ukrainian Buk launch.

Russia and rebel sources have repeatedly denied downing MH17, and alleged it was hit by a Ukrainian missile.

At other times, they have argued a Ukrainian war plane shot at the civilian Boeing.

These charges have been denied by Kiev which has poor relations with Moscow following Putin's annexation of Crimea and support for rebels in eastern Ukraine.

"We hope that despite political pressure, the international investigation will demonstrate impartiality and a principled stance in assessing the crash, in establishing the true causes and in pinpointing those responsible for the tragedy that claimed the lives of innocent civilians," said Denis Pushilin, a senior official in the rebel government.

"The Donetsk People's Republic is ready to further contribute to the investigation of the tragedy involving the Malaysian Boeing," he said.

A spokesman for the DPR said "material evidence related to the Boeing crash" had been handed over.

Ukraine this week demanded that the perpetrators of MH17 should be brought to justice.

Premier Volodymyr Groysman blamed "Russian terrorists" and said: "Bringing this case to trial in the relevant courts is the common duty of the whole civilised democratic world."

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