Fighting stalls AFP team’s forensic search

DUTCH and Australian police were last night prevented for a second time from visiting the Malaysia Airlines crash site.

A Ukrainian serviceman of the Donbass volunteer battalion throws a Russian flag out of the window of a building in the outskirts of the eastern Ukrainian city of Lysychansk on July 26, 2014. Ukrainian troops retook the strategically-important city of Lysychansk in eastern Ukraine on July 25, as they press on with their offensive to stamp out a pro-Russian rebellion. AFP PHOTO/ GENYA SAVILOV

FOREIGN Minister Julie Bishop last night urged Ukraine’s leaders to stop the fighting in the country’s east as Dutch and Australian police were prevented for a second time from visiting the Malaysia Airlines crash site.

Explosions were heard in two nearby towns as Ukraine troops fought to liberate the area from pro-Russian forces.

“We want to urge them to abide by the terms of the UN ­Sec­u­­rity Council resolution which required there to be a ceasefire on both sides,” Ms Bishop told ABC’s 7.30. “That’s what we have sought from the separatists, and that is what we will be seeking from the Ukrainian leadership because the ceasefire zone has been breached in the last 24 hours.”

Ms Bishop’s call came as the UN declared that the downing of MH17 might amount to a war crime and a Ukrainian official revealed that analysis of the plane’s black box had revealed the plane crashed due to an explosive loss of pressure after it was punctured multiple times by shrapnel from a missile.

National security spokesman Andriy Lysenko said the plane suffered “massive explosive decompression” after it was hit by the fragments.

The international police team departed from rebel stronghold Donetsk, where bursts of gunfire rang out on Monday morning and shelling was heard overnight, but were spotted about 30km from the crash site.

A flimsy ceasefire over the area has not held, and it is not even certain the government in Kiev controls the Ukrainian military, which is being shored up by civilian volunteers who have rushed to the Donetsk frontline to join the effort to rout pro-Russian rebels from the town.

This will complicate the mission of Ms Bishop and her Dutch counterpart, Frans Timmermans, who are returning to Kiev today to try once again to secure agreement for formal access to the site.

Most of the 190 Australian Federal Police officers assigned to ­Operation Bring Them Home are in Ukraine waiting for a break in the battle and a breakthrough in the diplomacy. AFP deputy commissioner Andrew Colvin said in Canberra yesterday that the area around the crash site was highly volatile and the safety of personnel was paramount. Mr Colvin said it was the international team’s mission to get on to the crash site, to collect any ­remains still there and get out again as quickly as possible.

“We will be back into the site as soon as we possible can,” he said.

Mr Colvin said it could take weeks to collect the remains and identify the victims. “The risks are obvious, and they are many.”

Mr Colvin conceded that some of the remains might not be found.

The Dutch government has cooled on the notion of sending soldiers to the area to guard its police, fearing it would provide an excuse for the situation to escalate into an international conflict.

Tony Abbott has emphasised the Australian mission to Ukraine must be short and sharp, with a definite exit strategy.

The Australians have entered a region of the world where propaganda is shamelessly used to incite patriotic hysteria or to further cloud the issues.

The Prime Minister knows the longer the Australians stay in the conflict zone the greater the chance their presence will become subject to a misinformation campaign that will cast doubt on their purpose in Ukraine.

Today’s mission, should the Australians and Dutch succeed in reaching the crash site, should tell them a lot about the extent of valuable forensic information remaining after the area was further contaminated on Sunday by heavy fighting. The mission’s main problem is the Ukrainian government — even if it demanded its troops pull back from the crash site to let the full investigation to team in — might not be able to get that mes­sage through.

The Ukrainian military is not at this time a clearly defined organised force, but one that is fighting on a wave of patriotic hatred for pro-Russian forces. It is being manned by volunteers who have left their day jobs and headed for the battle — and these part-time soldiers are more interested in ­ridding Ukraine of pro-Russian militia than securing the crash site.

Pro-Russian rebel leader Alexander Borodai, self-appointed prime minister of the Donetsk People’s Republic, has been ­reported as saying the Ukrainians are fighting near the crash site to “destroy all evidence of the crime committed by its military”.

Mr Borodai alleges it was Ukrainian fighter jets that shot down the Malaysia Airlines jet, killing all 298 people on board, rather than his own rebels using a surface-to-air missile.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has strongly rejected suggestions that troops are massing on the western front in preparation to enter eastern Ukraine to support the rebels.

Additional reporting: Agence   France  Presse