MOSCOW, August 2 (RIA Novosti) – The Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) registered a high level of organized access to the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, the SMM said Saturday in a press release based on information received as of August 1.
“The crossing of territories controlled by Ukrainian government or the so-called “Donetsk People’s Republic” (“DPR”) or the so-called “Luhansk People’s Republic” (“LPR”) went smoothly and was well organized,” the statement read.
According to the document, Australian and Dutch experts were met “by an “LPR” escort, and drove to the main wreckage site.”
The experts carried out works at the site recovering some human remains.
Soon after that the team left for the city of Soledar housing a forward operating base, which is to serve as the main “forward hub for investigative activity.”
On Saturday, the OSCE announced that a group of 70 international experts and eight monitors, as well as cadaver dogs, arrived at the crash site in eastern Ukraine.
The team was later forced to suspend its work amid shelling.
Malaysia Airlines MH17 en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur went down in Donetsk Region in eastern Ukraine on July 17. A total of 298 people who were on board the plane died in the accident.
Ukrainian authorities lay the blame for shooting down the plane on independence supporters. The latter insist they do not have the means to hit a target flying as high as the airliner was.