You're reading: Separatists prevent Ukrainian rescuers, law enforcers from accessing Malaysian airliner crash site

Head of Donetsk Regional State Administration Serhiy Taruta said that representatives of the self-proclaimed People's Republic of Donetsk (DPR) are preventing Ukrainian rescuers and law enforcement officers from accessing the site of the crash of the Malaysian Boeing 777 passenger aircraft.

“At the moment, representatives of the DPR prevent members of rescue services and law enforcement agencies from accessing the site of the tragedy. This may seriously affect the course of the investigation and the establishment of the true causes of the accident and its scale,” Taruta said in a statement published on a temporary Web site of Donetsk Regional State Administration.

According to him, some 300 people died as the result of the crash.