Russian-backed rebels responsible for shooting down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine should face prosecution in Dutch courts once international investigations are finished, Australia’s foreign minister says.

Julie Bishop says that’s one of several options for justice to be served if, as expected, Russia continues to veto any United Nations Security Council action.

The MH17 disaster claimed the lives of 298 people, including 38 Australian citizens and residents.

A Dutch-led criminal investigation has found 100 people linked to the transport and firing of the Buk missile, and that it was driven from Russia into an area of eastern Ukraine controlled by Moscow-backed rebels.

“The next step is to identify those responsible, the chain of command within the Russian military and all those who were involved in making the decision and actually operating that missile,” Ms Bishop told ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday.

“That is underway and I expect that by the end of the year, maybe early next year, the list of those that we believe should be held accountable will be confirmed and then there must be a prosecution.”

Russia has rejected all suggestions its military was involved in the incident.

Russian officials released what they claimed to be “new evidence” that MH17 was not shot down by Kremlin-backed forces, days before the preliminary criminal report into the disaster was released on Wednesday night (AEST).

The Dutch government summoned Russia’s ambassador in The Hague for a diplomatic rebuke on Friday after Moscow made remarks critical of the investigation.

Russia is expected to summon the Dutch ambassador in Moscow on Monday to explain its reasons for rejecting the findings.

Ms Bishop wouldn’t rule out a UN-backed prosecution but expects Russia will veto any attempt to set it up.

A Dutch Safety Board reconstruction of the MH17 aircraft, conducted in October 2015. Photo: AAP

“There can be a Lockerbie-style prosecution, a tribunal that’s set up by the international community, or there can be domestic prosecutions in, say, the Netherlands,” she said.

“As long as they had the powers of extradition and the like, a prosecution could be mounted successfully in a domestic jurisdiction, but that would cover the interests of the 298 victims aboard that flight.”

The Lockerbie-style prosecution Ms Bishop referred to was the way in which a Libyan national was convicted of the bombing of a Pan Am flight over the United Kingdom in 1988, known as the Lockerbie Bombing.

She rejected Russia’s theories about how the plane came to be shot as “improbable, implausible”.

Ms Bishop’s comments on Sunday were not the first time she has been firm on Russia’s role in the MH17 investigation and eventual prosecution.

In July 2015, Ms Bishop said Russia’s veto of a UN-backed MH17 tribunal should be treated with the “utmost distain”.

“In a world with an increasing number of violent terrorist groups and other non-state actors, many with sophisticated military capabilities, it is inconceivable that the Security Council would now walk away from holding to account those who brought down a commercial aeroplane,” she told the UN general assembly at the time.

“The veto only compounds the atrocity. Only one hand was raised in opposition, but a veto should never be allowed to deny justice.

“The recital of discredited contentions and the anticipated excuses and obfuscation by the Russian Federation should be treated with the utmost disdain.”

– with AAP