Ukraine, rebels agree to remove crash site bodies
Bodies of victims are placed in plastic sacks by the side of the road at the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 near the village of Hrabove, eastern Ukraine, Saturday, July 19, 2014. AP
MOSCOW — A top Ukrainian official says the government and the pro-Russia separatists it is fighting have reached a preliminary agreement to remove the bodies from the site of the Malaysian plane crash.
Reports Saturday of how the bodies were decaying in the summer sun drew strong outrage worldwide, especially from the Netherlands, home to over half the victims.
The Ukrainian government and the separatists accuse each other of firing a surface-to-air missile Thursday at Malaysian Airlines Flight 17, killing all 298 people onboard.
Deputy Prime Minister Volodymyr Groisman said the “preliminary” accord would let Ukrainian emergency services and international observers remove the bodies and transport them to a safe place. He did not reveal where that would be. He said 192 bodies have been recovered from the crash site so far.
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