MH17:Train Carrying Bodies Leaves Ukraine

 

A train carrying the remains of victims of the Malaysian airliner which crashed in Ukraine has arrived in the city of Kharkiv, outside rebel territory. 

The transfer of bodies from flight MH17 follows international pressure on pro-Russia rebels, amid accusations that the aircraft was shot down.

Meanwhile international monitors say parts of the wreckage have been changed since they first saw it.


The Boeing 777 crashed last Thursday, killing all 298 people on board.

The Malaysia Airlines flight came down in rebel-held territory near the eastern village of Grabove.

Most of those who died were Dutch and the remains will be flown from a co-ordination centre in Kharkiv to the Netherlands for identification and forensic identification.

Five refrigerated freight wagons carrying remains and a passenger carriage marked "Donbass-Moscow" arrived at Kharkiv-Balashovsky train station and are due to be taken to the Malyshev tank factory, Interfax-Ukraine news agency reports.

There, the bodies will be loaded into refrigeration units supplied by the Dutch, the agency says.

The Ukrainian government has said it will do "its best" to send the remains to the Netherlands on Tuesday.

Countries directly affected by the disaster, such as the Netherlands, Australia, and the UK, have been concerned that the crash site was not properly sealed off with the risk that valuable evidence could go missing.

A spokesman for the OSCE monitors at the site, Michael Bociurkiw, told the BBC that major pieces of the plane had been cut into and that large parts now looked different from before.

Western nations say there is growing evidence that flight MH17 was hit by a Russian-supplied missile fired by rebels, but Russia has suggested Ukrainian government forces are to blame.

Clues
 
Late on Monday, the rebels, including the self-styled Prime Minister of the Donetsk People's Republic Alexander Borodai, handed over the "black box" flight recorders to Malaysian officials at a ceremony in Donetsk.

 

 

The rebels handed the flight-data recorders over to Malaysian officials at a ceremony in Donetsk

A newly released satellite image shows the crash site in the middle of Grabove in eastern Ukraine

Investigators hope the devices, described as being in good condition, will provide vital clues about what happened to the plane.

The handover of the "black boxes" and the transfer of remains followed talks between Mr Borodai and the Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, Mr Najib said in statement.

"In recent days, there were times I wanted to give greater voice to the anger and grief that the Malaysian people feel and that I feel," he said.

"But sometimes, we must work quietly in the service of a better outcome."