Ukraine government calls for full access to MH17 crash site
Posted July 19, 2014 9:34 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Negotiations continue between the Ukrainian government and pro-Russian militants to enable full access to the MH17 crash site, to allow victims remains to be gathered and scene evidence to be obtained.
The fields where the plane crashed on Thursday, near the town of Torez, are in a volatile rebel-controlled area, making access to the scattered debris, bodies and aircraft difficult.
A team of observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) are still being denied access to certain areas.
The Ukrainian foreign minister Pavlo Klimkin said at a press conference Saturday, the observer group must be allowed to enter the crash site to recover the bodies of the victims in a decent, humanitarian way.
“It’s an absolute priority to recover all bodies. It’s the key framework of our efforts at this moment, it’s of course difficult,” Klimkin said.
Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was reportedly hit by a missile over a rebel-held area in east Ukraine when traveling from Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport to the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur on Thursday. All 298 aboard the aircraft died.
Both Ukraine and the rebels have accused each other of shooting it down.
