DONETSK, November 9 (RIA Novosti) —The representatives of the Transport, Emergencies and Internal Affairs ministries of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) have arrived at the Malaysian flight MH17 crash site to begin preparations for collecting the aircraft wreckage, a spokesperson for the DPR Transport Ministry told RIA Novosti Sunday.
"The experts have arrived at the aircraft crash site to assess the possibility of wreckage removal," Ella Zhuranskaya said.
On Thursday RIA Novosti reported that a group of Dutch experts began collecting wreckage from the site of the Malaysia Airlines plane crash in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region. The experts were collecting small fragments of the plane and placing them in special containers.
It was reported earlier that the DPR transport minister will provide railway cars, cranes and trucks to remove the aircraft parts. But because of the terrain, trucks and cranes are often unable to reach the wreckage.
The DPR Transport Ministry now needs to determine how it will remove the wreckage and transport it to the railway station in Torez, some 20 kilometers (12 miles) away from the crash site. From Torez the plane's fragments will be brought to Kharkov and then the Netherlands. The DPR's Ministry of Emergencies will assist the Transport Ministry in collecting the wreckage and the Ministry of Internal Affair will ensure the safety of the works.
On July 17, a Malaysia Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed in Ukraine's eastern region of Donetsk, killing all 298 people on board.
Kiev accused independence supporters of eastern Ukraine of shooting the plane down, but has not provided any evidence for this assertion. The local militia leaders have said that they do not have weapons capable of shooting down a plane flying at 32,000 feet.
On September 9, the Dutch Safety Board issued a preliminary report on the MH17 crash, saying that the Malaysia Airlines flight broke up in the air probably as the result of structural damage caused by a large number of high-energy objects that penetrated the aircraft from the outside.
