Separatists seize all 196 bodies found, says Kyiv

Eastern Ukraine separatists had “forced” emergency workers to handover all 196 bodies that they had recovered so far from the MH17 crash sites.

According to the Associated Press, Ukraine officials claim that the bodies were loaded onto train cars bound for a separatist-held city.

This follows developments that the separatists had been tampering with evidence at the crash site and were removing bodies on their own at the site.

Ukraine’s Emergency Ministry was quoted as saying that its workers were “laboring under duress” and were “forced” to handover over the bodies to the rebels.

The report said that AP journalists saw bodies being “piled into body bags” by the side of the road on Saturday, but noted that the bodies were no longer there by Sunday morning.

Emergency workers were only searching the crash the site for body parts, the report said.

It remains unclear whether the Ukranian government and the separatists were working with each other or at odds with each other on the bodies.

According to the report, officials queried at the crash site had no idea either.

Correspondingly, Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s special monitoring mission (SMM) said it saw the bodies placed in “professional body bags” and moved to the side of the road by unknown “experts”.

“The SMM spokesperson does not know who these people are,” the Ukraine Crisis Media Centre said, after a phone call conversation with the spokesperson for Ukraine, Michael Bociurkiw at 6pm Malaysian time.

Heading to Ilovaysk

Meanwhile, AP reported that the train carrying the bodies was scheduled to head to the town of Ilovaysk, held by the separatists, but there are no instructions on where the bodies will head beyond that.

Russian news agencies claim the bodies were being sent to Donetsk, held by the separatists, while the Ukrainian government wants the bodies to be delivered to Kharkiv, the government-held city.

“Where they took the bodies – we don’t know,” Emergency Ministry spokesperson Nataliya Bystro told was quoted as saying.

There are also no explanations as to the fate of the remains of the other 102 on board Flight MH17, which are yet to be recovered.

Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak have warned against the movies being illegitimately moved and said he wants the remains of Malaysians identified to be brought home by Hari Raya, expected on July 28.

MH17 crashed on Thursday in separatist-held Grabovo, in the district of Donesk, some 500 kilometres from Kyiv, near the Ukraine-Russia border.

Ukraine officials claim that emergency workers were “working at gun point”, despite getting access to the site today.