A memorial service for victims of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crash is being prepared at the Kharkiv International Airport.
Security levels are unprecedented and riflemen are protecting the airport’s VIP terminal, an Interfax correspondent reports. He was told that strict security was required due to the participation of Dutch Security and Justice Minister Ivo Opstelten in the ceremony.
The media will not be allowed to attend the ceremony.
Containers with the victims’ remains have been brought to the tarmac.
In addition, Kharkiv is storing Boeing wreckage collected by experts. Twelve train cars loaded with wreckage from flight MH17 are in safe storage at a railway station in Kharkiv. In all, 650 cubic meters of wreckage have been collected by experts. Their transportation to the Netherlands will require 16 trucks.
Only the human remains will be sent to the Netherlands on Friday. The wreckage may be transported from Kharkiv to the Netherlands by the end of next week. It is still being examined by specialists.
Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 routed from Amsterdam (the Netherlands) to Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) crashed in the Donetsk region on July 17. The crash killed all 298 people onboard, among them 196 citizens of the Netherlands, 44 Malaysian nationals, among them 15 crewmembers, 27 citizens of Australia, and citizens of Indonesia, Germany, Belgium, the Philippines, the United Kingdom, Canada and New Zealand.
