MH17 Members of the Malaysian special investigation team are expected to enter the Malaysia Airlines (MAS) Flight MH17 crash site in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, on Monday to start their probe, said Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

He said in a statement issued in Kuala Lumpur today that provided the security situation was conducive, the Malaysians would enter the crash site along with the teams from the Netherlands and Australia.

"A combined task force in Kharkiv has decided that a Malaysian team of 21 people will be deployed to the forward operations base in Soledar, about a four-hour journey from Kharkiv, at 2pm (7pm in Malaysia) today," he said.

The crash site is about an hour's journey from the forward operations base.

Ahmad Zahid said Malaysia would extend full cooperation to the international security forces involved in the investigation into the crash.

Flight MH17 crashed in eastern Ukraine on July 17 as it was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur with 283 passengers and 15 crew on board. The Boeing 777-200 aircraft is believed to have been shot down over the troubled country.

- Bernama