Four Dutch experts visited the crash site of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in east Ukraine yesterday to help recover personal belongings of victims despite fighting between government troops and separatist rebels nearby.
The experts said they were on hand to advise a local emergencies ministry team combing the wreckage in the fields where the plane was brought down on July 17th, killing all 298 passengers and crew.
A short but intense exchange of artillery fire played out near the grassy fields where the team collected items including books, toothpaste tubes, playing cards, a plastic watch and a stick of antiperspirant. Many items were too badly burned to identify.
Black smoke rose in the distance less than 5km from the site, despite a ceasefire agreed on September 5th between Ukrainian troops and the pro-Russian separatists they are fighting.
Although ceasefire violations have been sporadic around strategically important locations in east Ukraine, it has led to less fighting.
Emergency ministry officials loaded the items on a small cargo truck to take them from the fields near the village of Hrabove back to the victims’ families. Armed pro-Russian rebels stood around the site while workers from the European rights and security watchdog OSCE monitored the recovery process. The Dutch forensics teams have identified 272 victims but there are still believed to be remains in the area.
Elsewhere on the Russian border with Ukraine, Russian troops are pulling back, the government in Kiev has said. President Vladimir Putin ordered forces to withdraw from the borders on October 11th and about 17,600 soldiers, on drills since the summer in the Rostov region, are to be redeployed, according to a statement on the Kremlin’s website. – (Reuters)