Julie Bishop to Ukraine: Stop the fighting

AUSTRALIA last night urged Ukraine’s leaders to stop the fighting that has prevented an international search of the MH17 crash site.

AUSTRALIA last night urged Ukraine’s leaders to stop the fighting in eastern Ukraine that has prevented an international police team searching the Malaysia Airlines crash site.

Fighting in the area around the site, near the village of Grabov, ­intensified on Sunday, apparently after large numbers of Ukrainian troops attacked rebels there.

That prevented the 49-strong international police team, which includes 11 Australians, beginning its search for victims’ remains and evidence of what sort of missile downed the airliner, killing all aboard.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said the police convoy had yesterday again begun to move from nearby Donetsk to the crash site. She said the police officers would have to pass several checkpoints occupied by forces from the Ukrainian military and by separatist groups, “but we are feeling quite confident that our teams, our crash investigation teams, will get to the site today’’.

Ms Bishop and her Netherlands counterpart, Frans Timmermans, were last night on their way to meet Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko and Acting Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman to urge them to stop the fighting.

The two ministers also planned to meet members of Ukraine’s ­national security and defence council.

“We will be seeking assurances that none of the military activity that has been going on in the last 24 hours or longer will compromise our humanitarian mission,” Ms Bishop told the ABC’s 7.30 program . “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.

“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 said she and Mr Timmermans had also spoken further with the Operation for ­Security and Co-operation in ­Europe, which had negotiated with the rebels on behalf of The Netherlands and Australia.

Earlier, Ms Bishop told The Australian that the security of the Australian police on the ground in Ukraine was her only priority and she had “clear, consistent and ­co-ordinated’’ contact with the OSCE.

“We have to remember our ­objective, and our objective is to ensure that we have thoroughly inspected the site for any remains. And experts can tell us whether there is a point beyond which there is no point, but they haven’t told us that, so we will continue to seek to undertake this mission for as long as we have to,’’ she said.

The Netherlands, Australia and a small team from Malaysia are charged with sweeping the extensive crash site to collect body remains and personal possessions to return to bereaved families.

Ms Bishop said contingency planning underpinned every decision in weighing up the risks of sending in unarmed police to an area that is in a dramatic state of flux.

“We have senior Australian Federal Police who are considering every option, every angle, so we have to bounce the risks of this humanitarian objective.’’

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte rejected a massive military commitment to try to secure the site and said the security situation was being assessed on a daily basis.