Pulatov, along with Russians Igor Girkin and Sergey Dubinsky and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko, are accused of murder over the downing of MH17 in Ukraine on July 17, 2014.

The four are being tried in absentia in the Netherlands for co-ordinating a Buk-TELAR missile launcher used to bring down the plane, killing all 298 aboard, including 38 who called Australia home.

Pulatov's lawyers want fresh interviews with dozens of witnesses who have advanced alternative crash scenarios, including that MH17 was shot down by a fighter jet or Ukrainian missile.

Prosecutor Ward Ferdinandusse says those requests don't help the Russian advance any specific legal defence or prima facie case of an alternative crash scenario.

"Once again Pulatov lurks in the early-morning fog of a defence to drafted later," Ferdinandusse told the District Court of The Hague on Friday.

"As he says himself, the result of these investigations could be the MH17 cannot have been hit by a Buk missile."

The prosecutor said under Dutch and European law, requests for further investigation must be based on more than just speculation and defendants could not just make endless checks over an original investigation.

He said any any revisions are supposed to specifically be in support of a single, concrete and credible defence scenario.

"The defence and Mr Pulatov do not have an unlimited right to have the investigation checked over and verified," Ferdinanusse said.

"Counsel have even said themselves that they actually don't particularly believe in the scenarios that they want to have further investigated or in the witness testimony that they want to have taken."

The prosecutor also said the court should consider Pulatov's requests separately from his co-accused because they aren't participating the trial.

He said Girkin, Dubinsky and Kharchenko can get underway imminently, without further investigation, even if Pulatov's case was delayed as further investigation took place.

The trial continues.

Australian Associated Press