None of the defendants are in court and, even if found guilty, will never face a day's imprisonment.

Three have, by refusing to be represented, snubbed the court by refusing to recognise either the validity of the accusations against them, the findings of the investigators, or the presiding judge's right to make a ruling on their guilt or innocence.

A fourth, Oleg Pulatov, is using the presence of his advocate to rub salt into the emotional wounds of the relatives and friends of the 298 people killed when a Russian missile shot down Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 over Eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014.

The victims included 193 Dutch, 43 Malaysians (including the 15 crew), 27 Australians, 12 Indonesians, 10 Britons, four Germans and four Belgians, three Filipinos, one Canadian and one New Zealander.

The Boeing 777 had taken off from Amsterdam's Schipol airport earlier that day. It had been on route to Kuala Lumpur. The Australians had been heading home.

Because so many victims were from The Netherlands that country is conducting the trial.

As neither Russia or the Ukraine extradite citizens the four accused are being tried in their absence.

The Russians have repeatedly denied any involvement in the mass casualty event.

This is despite apparently irrefutable evidence Igor Girkin, Sergei Dubinsky, Pulatov, and Leonid Kharchenko, a Ukrainian national, were complicit in relocating the Buk missile launcher which shot down MH17 from a Russian military base to the Ukraine.

All four of the men were closely associated with the pro-Russian Ukrainian separatists trying to seize control of the area at the time of the tragedy.

Dubinsky and Pulatov both allegedly have ties to Russia's infamous GRU military intelligence agency which also carried out the deadly nerve gas attack on the Skripals in Salisbury in England in 2018.

So, given the four accused are not necessarily the individuals who launched the missile, were apparently acting on behalf of the Russian government, and appear unlikely to ever be punished for their crimes, what is the point of putting them on trial?

The short answer is "truth, justice and respect". If the world turned its back on this brazen war crime without any attempt to get to the bottom of the matter or to call those responsible, including the Russian government, to account, it would be showing a callous disregard for innocent travellers slaughtered while going about their daily lives.

Justice does not always involve punishment. Why is it, for example, that nations around the world still go to great lengths to track down and try Nazi war criminals decades after their offences and in the knowledge they could well die before the judicial process is complete?

This trial, which has reportedly been the subject of hacking attempts by the Russians and has had to keep the identity of many witnesses secret in order to protect their lives, will place the facts on the record for the entire world to see.

It is a fitting tribute to the dead, and the living who still grieve for them, and makes the strongest possible statement that actions such as these can never be defended or justified.

Closure is a very empty word and this trial is unlikely to deliver it, whatever it is. That said, it must be heartening for the families to know their loved ones are remembered and that the world cares enough to search for justice and the truth.