The wrecked cockpit of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 is presented to the press during a presentation of the final report on the cause of the crash at the Gilze Rijen airbase on Tuesday. Investigators have concluded that MH17 was shot down by a missile fired from rebel-held eastern Ukraine, triggering a swift Russian denial. Photo: AFP

 Air crash investigators have concluded that Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down by a missile fired from war-torn eastern Ukraine, sources close to the inquiry said Tuesday, triggering a swift Russian denial.

The findings are likely to exacerbate the tensions between Russia and the West, as ties have strained over the Ukraine conflict and Moscow's entry into the Syrian war.

"It was a BUK missile that hit the left upper part of the cockpit," a visibly shaken relative, Robby Oehlers, told reporters, just after being briefed by Dutch officials in The Hague.

He said a wave of sadness had swept through the room as hundreds of relatives who lost loved ones were briefed by Tjibbe Joustra, the chairman of the Dutch Safety Board.

"They showed us the fragments that were inside the plane," Oehlers said, adding that in the room "it was so quiet, you could have heard a pin drop."

The official Dutch-led investigation seeks to end 15 months of speculation about why the Boeing 777 broke up in mid-air last year killing all 298 people on board.

The reported findings were swiftly disputed by the missile maker Almaz-Antey even before the official unveiling of the investigators' report at a Dutch air base.

Earlier, quoting three sources close to the investigation, the respected Volkskrant daily said Tuesday the inquiry had found the plane was hit by a BUK surface-to-air missile on July 17, 2014 as it flew from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.

According to Volkskrant, the report contains maps of the crash site, where the wreckage was strewn across fields close to the Ukrainian village of Grabove, in the war-torn area of Donetsk controlled by the rebels.

It rejects Moscow's contention that the plane was hit by a missile fired by Ukrainian troops as it flew at some 10,000 meters above the territory, the daily said.

The Dutch Safety Board, which led the international team of investigators, has stressed its mandate was not to determine who pulled the trigger, amid a separate criminal probe by Dutch prosecutors.

But two sources told the Volkskrant "the BUK missile is developed and made in Russia."

"It can be assumed that the rebels would not be able to operate such a device. I suspect the involvement of former Russian military officials," one told the paper.

Both Moscow and state-owned arms maker Almaz-Antey deny the claims.

Almaz Antey said Tuesday it had performed a test which "disputes the version of the Dutch," adding that the damage to the plane pointed to the use of an older type of missile. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday said there were "many, many strange things" about the investigation, including the failure to get the International Civil Aviation Organization to head it.