News.Kyiv.Me.

View
comments

At least ten Ukrainian soldiers have died in clashes with rebels near the crash site of flight MH17 on Friday, Kyiv has confirmed.

At least 14 people have been killed today, ten of them confirmed as Ukrainian Airborne Troops soldiers, in what Kyiv says was an ambush set up by militants near the town of Shakhtarsk, eastern Ukraine.

The bloody confrontation took place 15miles from the MH17 crash site, where an international team of experts is due to carry out inspections today.

Clashes: Government soldiers fire on pro-Russian separatists near Pervomaysk in east Ukraine on Thursday, as at least ten soldiers were killed in an alleged ambush today

‘In total it is known that 14 people died but the bodies of four of them have not been identified and could be Ukrainian soldiers or terrorists,’ said military spokesman Oleksiy Dmytrashkivsky.

‘So far we are talking about 10 Ukrainian servicemen dead.’

The death toll of 14 had been reduced from 20, which had been reported earlier in the day.

Meanwhile, a convoy of international investigators set out for a second visit to the crash site but on a road that did not go through Shakhtarsk.

A small team managed to perform an initial survey of the area for the first time yesterday.

Military efforts: A government soldier drives a car near Pervomaysk as a group of international experts have set out to make a second visit to the MH17 crash site on Friday

Clashes continue in the area surrounding the MH17 crash site, making it difficult for international experts to reach the area to recover an estimated 80 bodies still at the site

For days, clashes along routes to the wreckage site had kept investigators from reaching the area to find and retrieve bodies that have been decaying in the 32C heat. Independent observers warned that there has been tampering with evidence.

Today, the team were travelling in 15 cars and one bus from their base in the rebel stronghold of Donetsk. Their convoy was joined by three vehicles from the International Committee of the Red Cross when it reached the government-controlled town of Debaltseve.

Both sides in the conflict in east Ukraine have tentatively agreed to a ceasefire around the crash zone, although there is evidence that fighting is continuing in nearby locations.

It is believed up to 80 bodies may still remain uncollected at the crash site, which is spread in a broad area across fields between two villages.

United: Dutch Prime minister Mark Rutte welcomes Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak upon his arrival in The Hague on Thursday, to discuss the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 crash in Ukraine

Investigators working on the site say their first priority will be to recover human remains and retrieve victims’ belongings, so that they can be returned home.

New violence could jeopardise hopes of the investigation into the cause of the crash in which 298 perished and could also prevent the collection of an estimated 80 bodies still at the site.

Dutch police leading the international probe say the crash site remains perilous.

‘The security situation is still very unstable,’ said Pieter-Jaap Aalbersberg, head of the mission to repatriate the remains of the victims.

‘We are not absolutely sure if we can reach the crash site with the whole team of experts in the near future, but we are more hopeful than we were yesterday.’

The Ukrainian military said it was re-launching a broader offensive against separatist fighters following a day-long ceasefire but insisted troops would not carry out operations in the immediate vicinity of the crash site.

Share or comment on this article