Almost five years ago a Russian-made missile launcher was used to shoot down and rip apart a civilian airliner as its flew over eastern Ukraine. The mortal remains and personal belongings of some of the 298 victims still turn up scattered in fields and copses around the crash site.

Justice has been elusive for the families of the victims of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. Now a start has been made: four suspects, three Russians and a Ukrainian, will be charged with murder and brought to trial next March in the Netherlands. Most of those killed on the flight, which was heading from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, were Dutch and Australian. Ten Britons also died. The suspects, three of them former officers in the Russian secret…