KUALA LUMPUR, April 11— Ukrainian police arrested a man on suspicion of attempting to assassinate the chief expert witness in the investigation of the Malaysia Airlines MH17 crash.

According to a report by the Independent, Ukraine’s most senior forensic scientist, Oleksandr Ruvin, was shot in the leg late last year in an attack that the authorities believe was linked to his role in the crash probe.

The Ukrainian prosecutor’s office was quoted saying in the report that the country’s chief military prosecutor, Anatoliy Matios, would hold a briefing soon “regarding the arrest of the killer who attempted to murder the chief expert on the case of the downed Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777.”

Flight MH17 was shot down by a Russian-made surface-to-air missile over eastern Ukraine in July 2014, killing all 298 on board, the Dutch Safety Board said in October.

The final investigation report was released last year, 15 months after the incident based on a probe undertaken by a joint investigation team from the Netherlands, Ukraine, Malaysia, Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States and Russia.

The victims were predominantly from the Netherlands, but also included citizens of Malaysia, Australia, Indonesia, the United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium, the Philippines, Canada and New Zealand.