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A Malaysian Airlines passenger jet broke into pieces over Ukraine in July after it was struck by "high-energy objects from outside the aircraft,鈥� according to a preliminary Dutch report.

鈥淎 full listening of the communications among the crew members in the cockpit recorded on the cockpit voice recorder revealed no signs of any technical faults or an emergency situation,鈥� the Dutch Safety Board said in its report summary. 鈥淣either were any warning tones heard in the cockpit that might have pointed to technical problems.鈥�

The much-anticipated report released Tuesday stopped short of saying the Boeing 777 was shot down by a surface-to-air missile, and it did not say who was responsible for the July 17 incident, which took place over Ukrainian territory held by pro-Russian rebels. The investigators found "no evidence of technical or human error,鈥� for the crash. A final report is expected by July 2015.

Kiev and the West have accused pro-Russian rebels armed with Russian surface-to-air missile launchers of downing the plane, which was flying between Amsterdam and Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur. Moscow denies any involvement and some officials have pointed a finger at Ukraine's government.

Tuesday鈥檚 report was issued just one day after the European Union announced new sanctions on the Kremlin over its role in the Ukrainian conflict, which has killed more than 3,000 people, including the nearly 300 who perished in the Malaysia Airlines flight.

A听cease-fire has been in place听in eastern Ukraine since Friday, but already four Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and tens have been injured, reports TIME.听

Due to the ongoing violence in eastern Ukraine, the Dutch researchers have had limited access to the crash site, reports The BBC. Investigators relied on information gleaned from the plane鈥檚 black box flight recorders, air traffic control in both Ukraine and Russia, and photos and videos from the crash site to write their preliminary report. It took nearly a week after the crash for the first victim remains to be repatriated.

According to The New York Times:

Though report authors didn鈥檛 specify exactly what created the "high-energy objects" that brought down the plane, or who was responsible, many observers have started to use the report's preliminary findings to back up their own conclusions on the flight鈥檚 demise.听听

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said, "The findings are consistent with the government's statement that MH17 was shot down by a large surface-to-air missile." Australia suffered the second-largest loss of life among citizens on the flight, with 38 Australians killed (there were 196 Dutch citizens on board).
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Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak echoed this point of view in a written statement that noted the report鈥檚 key findings lead, 鈥渢o the strong suspicion that a surface-to-air missile brought MH17 down.鈥� He acknowledged that 鈥渇urther investigative work is needed before we can be certain."

An aviation safety specialist, Christopher Yates, told The Associated Press that the report "is extremely consistent鈥� with damage from a missile because of the 鈥減enetration marks鈥� on the plane:

A separate criminal investigation by prosecutors at The Hague is also underway, the BBC reports.