The US, Australia and the Netherlands should form a joint military task force to hunt and capture the three Russians and a Ukrainian charged with the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, a US columnist has urged.
The task force would be made up of elite US Delta Force, Australian Special Air Service and the Netherlands' Korps Commandotroepen members to go "deep behind enemy lines" and "grab our shared enemies off the streets or out of their homes".
The bold suggestion comes after Dutch prosecutors this week charged Russians Igor Girkin, Sergey Dubinsky and Oleg Pulatov and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko over the disaster, which killed all 298 people, including 38 Australians, aboard the flight in 2014.
"Of course, Russia and Russian-controlled Ukrainian separatists in eastern Ukraine aren't going to hand over these suspects," Tom Rogan wrote in the Washington Examiner.
"The Russians deny any culpability for MH17 and, as with other Russian intelligence operations such as the 2018 poisoning of Sergei Skripal, will hide from the facts.
"That means others must bring justice."
All four charged were officials in the pro-Russian Donetsk People's Republic fighting for independence from Ukraine and, if not captured or handed over by Russia, likely will be prosecuted in absentia under Dutch law in The Netherlands on March 9 next year.
Girkin, Dubinsky, Pulatov and Kharchenko were allegedly responsible for the Buk missile launcher used to shoot down MH17 being brought into the area from Russia.
"President Trump should thus engage Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison in the formation of a joint military task force to capture the four suspects," Mr Rogan wrote.
