An area of 50 square kilometers around the July 17 Malaysian airliner crash site remains unsecured and not fully accessible to international investigators. The two flight recorders are in Donetsk and in the possession of Aleksander Borodai, the Russian citizen claimed on July 20 who heads the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic that the Ukrainian government has deemed a terrorist organization.
Borodai said that once the black boxes are identified by the United Nations’ International Civil Aviation Organization, “we’re ready to hand over those objects.” Phone conversation intercepts released by Ukraine’s State Security Service suggest that the guerillas had high-level orders from Moscow to find and secure the flight recorders in an attempt to cover up their involvement in shooting down 298 people.
Aviation experts say securing the site and preserving the evidence is crucial for investigators who want to determine the cause of death and identities of those who perished, and search for missile parts among the debris. But the crash site is in an area controlled by Kremlin-backed guerrillas who have and continue to potentially contaminate what authorities are calling the world’s largest crime scene.
Kyiv says Russian President Vladimir Putin is to blame for the shooting of the passenger airliner that Western governments say was likely done using an advanced surface-to-air missile system. Kyiv and U.S. authorities blame Russia for giving the guerillas the missile system. Putin in turn has blamed Kyiv for the act.
Moreover, Kyiv and the U.S. State Department says there have been multiple reports of bodies and aircraft parts being removed, and potential evidence tampered with, by the Kremlin-backed guerillas. Allegations have surfaced of the guerillas sifting through the personnel effects of deceased passengers, including the theft of credit cards, according to Ukrainian authorities.
At a press conference in Kyiv on July 21, Ukraine Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk said that 272 bodies have been recovered, 251 of whom have been loaded into refrigerator train cars at the Torez railway station in Donetsk Oblast. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte stated on July 21 that a team of forensic experts has already arrived in Torez.
Authorities in Kharkiv, where a special investigation commission was formed, are working to establish a humanitarian corridor to the crash site. Yatseniuk added that as of 10 a.m. today, 31 experts were in Kharkiv, 23 of whom are Dutch, two German, two from the U.S. and United Kingdom and three Australian diplomats.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s website stated that the experts have started examining photographic material and have proposed taking panoramic pictures of separate parts of the crash site. The investigation will ultimately be probed in the Netherlands, the statement added.
Germany, France and the United Kingdom have given Putin until July 22 to allow international investigators full-fledged access to the crash site, or face “consequences.”
Kyiv Post editor Mark Rachkevych can be reached at [email protected].
