Police team turns back from Ukraine crash site

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-EXCITE

By MSTYSLAV CHERNOV and PETER LEONARD

SHAKHTARSK, Ukraine (AP) — Heavy fighting raged Monday around the Malaysia Airlines debris field, once again preventing an international police team charged with securing the site from even getting there.

Government troops have stepped up their push to win back territory from pro-Russian separatists in fighting that the United Nations said Monday has killed more than 1,100 people in four months.

The international delegation of Australian and Dutch police and forensic experts stopped Monday in Shakhtarsk, a town around 20 miles (30 kilometers) from the fields where the Boeing 777 was brought down.

Sounds of regular shelling could be heard from Shakhtarsk and residents were seen fleeing town in cars.

FULL story at link.



Self-proclamed Donetsk People's Republic policemen watch refugees fleeing Shakhtarsk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine on Monday, July 28, 2014. An international police team abandoned its attempt to reach the crash site of a Malaysia Airlines plane for a second day running Monday as clashes raged in a town on the road to the area.(AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)



Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20140728/eu--ukraine-b4c5706c90.html

[Historic NY]

1. The longer legitimate authorities are blocked...

the easier the evidence can be manipulated.

[davidpdx]

5. I'd think an investigation is going to be really tough to conduct given the crash site has been

contaminated for as long as that one has. I hope they can get control of the site soon.

[reorg]

2. DPR militants lost control of crash site, that's why

Pro-Russian rebels say they have lost control of the MH17 crash site as explosions force investigators to abandon latest attempt to visit Ukrainian plane wreckage

Fighting has stopped an international police team from reaching the wreckage of a Malaysian Airlines plane for a second day running, as pro-Russian rebels admit they have lost control of part of the crash site.

(...)

The mandate of the police team is to secure the currently rebel-controlled area so that comprehensive investigations can begin and any remaining bodies can be recovered.

With government troops intensifying their push to claw back more territory from pro-Russian separatist rebels, the death toll is mounting steadily.

Today rebels admitted they had lost control of part of the crash site to pro-Kiev forces.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2708164/MH17-investigators-pledge-attend-crash-site-today-just-24-hours-saying-dangerous-ongoing-fighting-Ukraine.html

Intensified combat operations “are irrefutable evidence proving that Kiev is seeking to destroy all evidence of the crime committed by its military,” Borodai was quoted as saying.

“The junta is in panic, the only thing that matters for them today is to evade exposure. Kiev’s actions run counter to [President Pyotr] Poroshenko’s decision to declare a 40-kilometre zone around the crash site a ceasefire territory.”

Earlier on Sunday after visiting the Malaysian embassy in Ukraine, President Poroshenko told journalists he had ordered to stop combat operation in a 40-kilometre zone around the Malaysian Boeing crash.

http://en.itar-tass.com/world/742498

[Comrade Grumpy]

3. Kiev has other priorities. n/t

[snooper2]

7. Looks like the pro Rus-Si-A assholes over there you have been backing are looking worse and worse

I give you props for even posting in the thread, even though it doesn't make any sense-

[freshwest]

4. Kicking.

[reorg]

6. Dutch PM urges Ukraine to stop fighting near crash site

The call comes after Dutch and Australian experts were unable to leave Donetsk to visit the crash site for third day running because there is 'too much fighting', the Dutch justice ministry said
...
It comes after intense fighting between Ukrainian troops and rebels in eastern Ukraine killed at least 19 civilians, local officials said.
...
Mark Rutte called President Petro Poroshenko to ask Ukrainian forces to stop fighting near the crash site, a government spokesman said on Tuesday.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ukraine/10997363/MH17-Dutch-PM-urges-Ukraine-to-stop-fighting-near-crash-site.html

[geek tragedy]

8. The war may be in its final stages.

If Ukraine can end the war by encircling Donetsk and cutting it and the crash site off from Russia in the next 24-48 hours by all means they should do so.

Most important thing is to end the war decisively.

[reorg]

9. Flight MH17: UN approves resolution demanding access to crash site

... http://globalnews.ca/news/1463490/rebels-agree-to-allow-safe-access-to-crash-site-malaysias-pm/

Oops, that was 8 days ago. Now that the Ukrainian military is shelling the place, the forceful demands have withered away. A minute ago I thought I heard something, but it sounded like "meow" and was probably just the neighbor's cat?