Dutch prosecutors will set out their sentencing demands for four men on trial this week in absentia over the killing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH 17 in war-torn Ukraine in 2014.
Prosecutors will present the indictment during three days of hearings from Monday, charging the men with the murders of all 298 people on the Boeing 777.
The four suspects -- Russian nationals Igor Girkin, Sergei Dubinsky and Oleg Pulatov -- and Ukrainian citizen Leonid Kharchenko -- have all refused to attend the trial in the Netherlands.
A verdict at the high-security court near Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, where MH 17 took off on its doomed flight to Kuala Lumpur, is not expected until late 2022 at the earliest.
The hearings come as the West accuses Moscow of planning an invasion, which is a result of the new tensions over Ukraine.
International investigators say MH 17 was shot down by a BUK missile brought from a Russian military base on July 17, 2014, over part of eastern Ukraine held by pro-Moscow separatists.
Some of the victims, some of whom were still strapped into their seats, were strewn across sunflower fields along with the white, red and blue wreckage of the plane.
Girkin, 49, also known as his pseudonym Strelkov, is the most high-profile suspect a former Russian spy and historical re-enactment fan who helped kickstart the war in Ukraine.
Dubinsky, 57, who has been linked with Russian intelligence, has been allegedly serving as the separatists' military intelligence chief.
Pulatov, 53, was an ex-Russian special forces soldier and one of Dubinsky's deputies.
Pulatov is the only suspect to be represented by lawyers.
The court said that prosecutors would spend Monday and Tuesday explaining evidence, including telephone and electronic eavesdropping, the circumstances surrounding the missile, and the defendants themselves.
The sentencing demand is expected to follow on Wednesday and will include an extensive justification of the requested penalty, the spokesperson said.
Prosecutors said during the opening of the trial in March 2020 that if the court passes a sentence, we will do everything in our power to make sure it is enforced, whether in the Netherlands or elsewhere. The trial heard of the heartbreak of the loss of children, parents and siblings and called for justice in Russia.
Kiev has been battling a pro-Moscow insurgency in two breakaway regions bordering Russia since 2014, when the Kremlin annexed Ukraine's Crimean peninsula.
Western nations imposed tough sanctions on Russia after international outrage over the shooting down of flight MH 17.
Russia has recently slashed troops near Ukraine's borders, and the West has accused it of planning an invasion, warning Moscow of massive sanctions should it launch an attack.
Moscow denies the claims, with President Vladimir Putin trying to talk with US counterpart Joe Biden, and security guarantees to stand down his troops.