Deputy head of the OSCE mission to Ukraine Alexander Hug, center back to the camera, speaks to a member of Netherlands’ National Forensic Investigations Team on the platform as a refrigerated train loaded with bodies of the passengers departs the station in Torez, eastern Ukraine, 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, Monday, July 21, 2014. Dutch forensic experts on Monday began examining the bodies from the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 plane disaster, as world leaders denounced the “shambolic” state of the crash site left in the hands of pro-Russia rebels. AP PHOTO/EVGENIY MALOLETKA
TOREZ, Ukraine—Dutch forensic experts on Monday began examining the bodies from the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 plane disaster, as world leaders denounced the “shambolic” state of the crash site left in the hands of pro-Russia rebels.
Ukraine Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said the remains of some 250 victims of the 298 killed when the flight went down on Thursday—apparently shot by a surface-to-air missile—had been recovered and moved to train cars, and could be transferred to the Netherlands.
But the bodies are in rebel-held territory where Kiev holds no sway, near the city of Donetsk where intense shelling broke out again on Monday.
The UN Security Council is expected on Monday to adopt an Australia-backed resolution demanding that pro-Russia separatists grant unrestricted access to the crash site for international experts.
Patience was wearing thin over Moscow’s stance, even as President Vladimir Putin pledged Russia would do “everything in its power” to resolve the Ukrainian conflict and to open access to the site.
Int’l outrage
The besieged Russian leader appeared to seek to temper world fury after Washington said it had overwhelming evidence the missile system used to shoot down the Malaysia Airlines jet was transferred from Russia to the rebels.
The shambolic attempts to investigate by the pro-Russia separatists who control the verdant farmland where pieces of the plane crashed to earth have fanned widespread international outrage, especially from the nations whose citizens were on the doomed plane.
Four days after the jetliner was shot out of the sky, international investigators still had only limited access to the crash site in eastern Ukraine.
Emergency workers piled 21 more black body bags from the blackened crash site by the side of the road on Monday in Grabove. The bodies were being sent to the refrigerated railcars in the nearby town of Torez, where the other bodies are being kept.
At the Torez station, an Agence France-Presse reporter witnessed the Dutch investigators, wearing masks and headlights, open each of the train wagons holding the remains of recovered bodies, amid an overpowering stench.
The smell of decomposing bodies was much more pronounced on Monday at the station than a day earlier, when 196 bodies were put onto the train cars. Four rebels armed with automatic weapons were standing guard around the cars.
Ukrainian officials say the plane was shot down by a mobile missile battery from a rebel-controlled area in eastern Ukraine. They said the BUK rocket launcher was supplied from Russia and operated by Russian personnel.
The United States presented what it called “powerful” evidence on Sunday that the rebels shot down the Boeing 777 with a Russian surface-to-air missile.
Putin slams critics
Fighting flared again on Monday between the separatists and government troops in the eastern rebel-held city of Donetsk. City authorities said battles were taking place near the town’s airport and warned residents to stay inside. An Associated Press reporter heard several explosions and saw smoke rising from the direction of the airport.
Pressure has been growing on Putin, who the United States and others say has backed and armed the rebels, to rein in the insurgents in Ukraine and allow a full-scale investigation. Russia has denied backing the separatists.
Putin lashed out against those criticisms again on Monday, accusing others of exploiting the downing of the plane for “mercenary objectives.”
Putin said Russia was doing everything possible to allow a team of experts from the International Civil Aviation Organization, a UN agency, to investigate the scene. He again criticized the Ukraine government authorities in Kiev for reigniting the fighting with the pro-Russia rebels who control the crash site.
“We can say with confidence that if fighting in eastern Ukraine had not been renewed on June 28, this tragedy would not have happened,” Putin said. “Nobody should or does have a right to use this tragedy for such mercenary objectives.”
Yatsenyuk, Ukraine’s prime minister, angrily called on Russia to halt what he said was its support for the rebels.
Evidence tampering
“They have to stop, and President Putin has to realize, enough is enough,” he said. “What we expect from Russia: To deescalate the situation, to withdraw their agents, to close the border, to stop their support for these bastards, and to stick to international law and international observations.”
Rebel leader Alexander Borodai denied his fighters were trying to tamper with evidence at the site, saying the bodies would be turned over to a team of Malaysian experts. A group of investigators that included Malaysian officials was in Kiev, but said they wouldn’t go into rebel-held areas until they get better assurances about security.
Despite Borodai’s claims, it was clear that the rebels were interfering in the investigation.
Lyubov Kudryavets, a worker at the Torez morgue, said the evening the plane went down, a resident brought in the bloodied body of a young child. On Saturday, militiamen came to take the body away, she said.
“They began to question me: ‘Where are the fragments of rocket? Where are the fragments from the plane?”’ Kudryavets said. “But I didn’t have any wreckage. … I swear.”
Experts said even if investigators were granted access now to the site, it might be too late.
“Even without any deliberate attempt at a cover-up, the crash site is already compromised in forensic terms,” said Keir Giles, an associate fellow at the Chatham House think tank.
He said a reconstruction of the aircraft fuselage and wings would show how the missile struck the plane and what type it was.
“If any aircraft parts have already been removed … this compromises the objectivity of the investigation,” he said.
The leaders of France, Britain and Germany also signaled they could ramp up sanctions against Russia as early as Tuesday—barely a week after the last round of toughened embargoes.
The separatists’ violent bid to join Russia is the latest chapter in a prolonged crisis sparked by Kiev’s desire for closer ties with the European Union—a sentiment many in the Russian-speaking east do not share.