Up to 80 bodies are still believed to be at the Flight MH17 crash site in eastern Ukraine, two weeks...

1. Flight MH17: 80 bodies still at Malaysia Airlines crash site|
Flight MH17 News
Up to 80 bodies are still believed to be at the Flight MH17 crash site in eastern Ukraine, two weeks
after the Malaysia Airlines plane was downed.
The report comes amid growing fears in the West that Russia has been "actively undermining" the
international investigation into how the aircraft crashed. Pro-Russian separatists are accused of
shooting down the plane on 17 July, killing all 298 passengers and crew on board.
Australian and Dutch investigators reportedly reached the crash site today after four days of failed
attempts. Heavy fighting between Ukraine forces and the rebels has repeatedly forced the experts to
abandon their search for remains and evidence.
Australian foreign minister Julie Bishop said that a new report suggesting up to 80 bodies are yet to
be found had made the investigators even more determined to gain access.
The investigation team is also keen to retrieve a large collection of personal items belonging to the
victims from a morgue in the rebel-stronghold of Donetsk.
"It's heartbreaking. It's so distressing," she said yesterday after a fourth attempt to gain access
failed. "We have the team in place, we have the experts ready to work, and we can't get to the
site."Â
She said her "great fear" was that Russia was "actively undermining this process".
But the Ukraine government has agreed to a day-long pause in fighting following a plea from the UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. It has also granted permission for investigators to carry weapons as
a protective measure. Bishop tweeted today that the party of experts had finally made it onto the
site.Â
The Australian foreign minister said she was also aware of claims from the Ukrainian military that
rebels had been laying land mines on roads through the crash site. "I don't know if those reports are
confirmed," she told ABC radio. "If that is true, it is utterly despicable."
Flight MH17: military mission to secure crash site 'unrealistic'
28 July
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has ruled out sending an international military force to secure the
MH17 crash site, saying it would be "unrealistic," the BBC reports.Â

2. "Getting the military upper hand for an international mission in this area is, according to our
conclusion, not realistic", he said.
The eastern areas of Donetsk and Luhansk continue to be plagued by fighting between Russian
separatists and Ukrainian forces.
Rutte warned that such action could provoke the separatists and further "destabilise the situation" in
the region. His conclusion follows early plans that were mooted for a joint operation to secure the
crash site by the governments of the Netherlands, Australia and Malaysia.
An official investigation of the site has not yet been carried out as the area is still under the control
of pro-Russian rebels. There are increasing fears that evidence from the crash may be lost or
removed as separatists and locals disturb the crime scene. Several bodies are still missing in the
fields surrounding the crash site, while the repatriation process continues.
"We cannot take the risk", Alexander Hug from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in
Europe (OSCE) told the BBC.
Following allegations that victims' credit cards and other valuable had been looted from the
crash, a woman from Donetsk caused outrage when she posted an image to Instagram showing her
wearing mascara apparently stolen from the crash site.
The self-identified Russian separatist captioned the photo "mascara from Amsterdam, from the field
to be precise, you know what I mean", the International Business Times reports.
In separate developments, the US government has released intelligence documents which it says
prove that Russia has been firing across the border into Ukraine. The satellite images also prove that
the separatists in eastern Ukraine are using heavy artillery provided by Russia, US officials said.
Flight MH17: Commander admits rebels had Buk missile
24 July
A pro-Russian rebel commander has admitted that separatists did possess the Buk missile system
(above), which Western leaders suspect was used to shoot down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17.

3. Alexander Khodakovsky, commander of the Vostok Battalion, told Reuters that the anti-aircraft
missile system could have originated in Russia and may have been sent back since the disaster.
"That Buk I know about. I heard about it. I think they sent it back," he said. "They probably sent it
back in order to remove proof of its presence."
The US presented evidence in Washington yesterday that points to the use of a Buk missile
system against the civilian plane, which crashed last Thursday killing all 298 people on board.
Officials said the "most plausible explanation" was that rebels mistook the airliner for another
aircraft.
Khodakovsky suggested Kiev had goaded rebels into the attack by launching air strikes in the area
while knowing that the rebels had a missile launcher in place.
He claimed that after a week of no air strikes, Kiev had chosen to carry out an airborne attack on a
target "they did not need" at the moment a civilian plane flew overhead.
"That day, they were intensively flying, and exactly at the moment of the shooting, at the moment
the civilian plane flew overhead, they launched air strikes. Even if there was a Buk, and even if the
Buk was used, Ukraine did everything to ensure that a civilian aircraft was shot down."Â
He added: "Ukraine received timely evidence that the volunteers have this technology, through the
fault of Russia. It not only did nothing to protect security, but provoked the use of this type of
weapon against a plane that was flying with peaceful civilians."
However, another pro-Russian rebel leader - Alexander Borodai, self-declared prime minister of the
Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) - has categorically denied the presence of the Russian-made SA-11
Buk missile system in the crash area. Speaking to the BBC in Donetsk, he insisted any evidence to
the contrary was "fake".
Flight MH17: Bodies missing as repatriation begins
23 July
The first bodies from downed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 have arrived in The Netherlands, the
BBC reports.
But Dutch officials say only 200 of the 282 recovered bodies arrived by train in the Ukrainian city of
Kharkiv on Tuesday night. Interpol began the preliminary identification process after they arrived

4. from Donetsk.
The plane landed in Eindhoven, where it was met by Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister, and
members of the royal family. They will then be taken to Korporaal van Oudheusden barracks for
further identification.
Rutte warned families that while the identification process might be quick in some cases, other cases
could take "weeks or even months".
A day of national mourning is being held in the Netherlands for the 193 Dutch victims who died in
the crash.
Meanwhile, declassified US intelligence documents have revealed that officials believe Russia
"created the conditions" that resulted in the downing of the Malaysian airliner, but found no direct
link to Moscow.
They instead suggested that the Russian separatists in Donetsk shot down the plane "by mistake",
The Guardian reports.
The black boxes, handed over to Dutch authorities by Malaysian officials, have now arrived in
Farnborough where they will be analysed by the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch, according to
the BBC.
"They're confident that, depending on the level of damage, they will be able to retrieve the
information within 24 hours," a spokesperson for the Department of Transport told the Guardian.
Flight MH17: bodies and black boxes handed over by rebelsÂ
22 July
Four days after flight MH17 was downed in eastern Ukraine, almost all of the passengers' bodies
have been sent on a slow journey to the Netherlands to be identified by forensic experts.
Senior rebel leaders finally agreed to hand over the bodies and the plane's black boxes, and allow
international investigators access to the crash site.
A freight train carrying 282 passengers is on its way to Kharkiv, a city controlled by the Ukrainian
government. The bodies will then be prepared for transfer by air to the Netherlands. The remains of
16 people are still believed to be missing.
Although the bodies were placed in a refrigerator train, the Dutch victim identification team was told
that the refrigeration units had broken down during a power cut on Sunday, reports The Times.
"Investigators wore face masks and bowed their heads before entering the trucks, which emitted an
overwhelming stench," says the newspaper.
The train later arrived in Donetsk but was temporarily held up in the wake of heavy fighting around
the city's railway station.
The black boxes have been handed over to Malaysian officials, who said the recorders were "in good
condition". Experts hope they will reveal the exact time of the incident, the altitude of the plane and

5. its precise position, as well as recordings from the cockpit.
Families of British victims have been urgently cancelling credit cards and mobile phone accounts
amid claims that the bodies were "looted", the Daily Telegraph reported last night. Witnesses
claimed separatists had been pocketing valuables and electronic equipment from the site.
Rebel commander Alexander Borodai admitted that items might have been stolen and promised to
punish the offenders. "Sons of bitches can be found everywhere," he told reporters. "We are now
investigating. Those who are guilty would be severely punished."
According to The Guardian, Malaysia Airlines is facing further criticism after it emerged that in
diverting its planes away from Ukraine, it had sent at least one flight over another conflict zone:
Syria. ·Â
http://www.theweek.co.uk/world-news/flight-mh17/59528/flight-mh17-80-bodies-still-at-malaysia-airli
nes-crash-site