Vladimir Putin backs recovery of MH17 bodies

VLADIMIR Putin has bowed to pressure and pledged Russian support to recover bodies and key evidence from the crash site of Flight MH17.

VLADIMIR Putin has bowed to international pressure and pledged Russian support to recover bodies and key evidence from the crash site of Flight MH17, giving hope to bereaved families that they can bring home the remains of their loved ones.

Despite fresh buck-passing over who was responsible for shooting down the Malaysia Airlines plane with the loss of all 298 crew and passengers, including 38 Australians, the Russian President promised “full co-operation’’ to end an impasse with Russian-backed rebels and enable the dead and the crucial black box recorders to be handed over.

Russia’s ambassador to Australia, Vladimir Morozov, confirmed his country would today back a UN Security Council resolution drafted by Australia demanding that the insurgents cease fire and allow safe, secure and unrestricted access to the site in eastern Ukraine to international air crash investigators and forensic crews.

After speaking to Mr Putin, Tony Abbott said the Russian leader had conveyed “all the right things’’. The Prime Minister of The Netherlands, a nation mourning the deaths of 193 citizens in the missile attack, revealed that Mr Putin had agreed to help inter­national investigators gain access to the reeking crash scene after they were impeded by pro-­Russian militants.

“To President Putin’s credit, he did say the right things. I want to stress he was fine,’’ the Prime Minister said. “The challenge now is to hold the President to his word.’’

In an exclusive interview, Mr Morozov said Russia would not exercise the veto it held as a permanent member of the Security Council when the resolution was put early today in New York. This was despite reports the Russians were quibbling about the wording, arguing it should refer to the airliner being “downed’’ rather than shot down.

Russia had originally drafted its own resolution, but after intense negotiations this was folded into the Australian text. Both countries were in fundamental agreement about the need for a full investi­gation into the disaster, Mr Morozov said. “Now the two drafts are one,’’ he told The Australian.

There were indications last night that China would also support the binding resolution, after President Xi Jinping backed an “objective’’ investigation. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, who will be at the UN for the vote, said she expected all 15 Security Council members to line up with Australia.

Facing fresh threats of sanctions from the US, Britain and France, Mr Putin backed a deal to allow investigators from the UN’s International Civil Aviation Organisation to take custody of the black box flight data and cockpit voice recorders that are evidently held by the Moscow-sponsored rebels. “It’s essential for a robust team of experts to work on the site of the crash under the auspices of ICAO, the relevant international commission,’’ Mr Putin said in a post on the Kremlin website.

Last night, he insisted that Russia was doing everything possible to get the ICAO team to the crash site, and lashed out again at the Ukrainians for reigniting the fighting with the insurgents who control it. Kiev was exploiting the downing of MH17 for “mercenary objectives’’, he said. “We can say with confidence that if fighting in eastern Ukraine had not been renewed on June 28, this tragedy would not have happened,’’ Mr Putin said. “Nobody should or does have a right to use this tragedy for such mercenary purposes.’’

Earlier, he told Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte that Russia would fully co-operate with international teams trying to get to the ground zero of the disaster. For now, the area remains in chaos. Fighting erupted last night between the rebels and troops loyal to the Ukrainian government, pushing to recapture the city of Donetsk, just 8km from the crash site. Rocket and artillery fire was exchanged, in a serious escalation of the crisis. It was not clear how this would affect an already poorly co-ordinated recovery operation.

Up to 200 bodies have been loaded on a refrigerated train guarded by armed rebels, but the remains of dozens more victims lie in the open, rotting in the heat.

Describing the scene as “absolutely shambolic’’, Mr Abbott said it looked “more like a garden clean-up than a forensic investigation’’.

Ukraine has agreed for the bodies to be sent to The Netherlands for identification, it emerged last night.

British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Francois Hollande also heaped pressure on Mr Putin in phone calls to the Kremlin, while there were signs that Germany was prepared to toughen its position against the Russians.

Downing Street said later that EU foreign ministers meeting today must be prepared to impose biting sanctions, in contrast to the ambiguous response after the separatists seized the Crimean peninsula and parts of eastern Ukraine three months ago, destabilising the Western-leaning central government in Kiev.

US Secretary of State John Kerry turned up the heat on Russia, saying it was facing a “moment of truth’’ when there was little doubt its weaponry had been used in the missile strike. “Russia is supporting these separatists; Russia is arming these separatists; Russia is training these separatists, and Russia has not yet done the things necessary in order to try to bring them under control,’’ he said.

Ukrainian emergency workers combing the debris-strewn wheat fields near the town of Grabovo said 251 bodies had now been found. There were mixed reports of what was to happen to those loaded on the refrigerated train, parked in a nearby siding. By one account, the train would go to the rebel-controlled city of Khirkiv; another report said the destination was the port city of Mariupol.

Experts who have studied photographs of the Boeing 777’s wreckage say the damage indicates the surface-to-air missile, probably from a Russian Buk-M1 launcher, struck close to the forward cargo hold, destroying the plane.

“The damage looks to be in keeping with what you would expect to see from a fragmentation warhead,’’ said a defence aviation expert. “The pattern of damage and recovered prefabricated fragments … would provide valuable indicators of the type of missile.’’

Additional reporting: Scott Murdoch, Charles Miranda, The Times, agencies