TOREZ (Ukraine), July 20 (RIA Novosti) – Monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) have arrived at the railway station near the crash site of the downed Malaysia Airlines jet to inspect the train that is due to transport the victims’ bodies to Donetsk, a RIA Novosti correspondent reports on the ground.
Leonid Baranov, a senior official in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic who leads a committee on refugees, told RIA Novosti two of the bodies had earlier been ferried to a Kalininsky hospital in the city of Donetsk.
“We are ready to bring them to Mariupol [a government-controlled port city in southeast] because we have our hands full as it is, but Kiev is taking time,” Baranov said Sunday.
A total of 196 bodies have been retrieved so far, according to Ukrainian emergency workers cited by BBC. There were 298 people, including 15 crew members, on board the crashed Boeing 777 as it went down Thursday near the town of Torez in east Ukraine’s Donetsk region.
Ukrainian government and militia have been trading blame for the alleged downing of the airliner since reports suggested foul play, with independence supporters claiming they have no missiles capable of shooting down a high-flying plane.
