MH17: Ukraine was ‘the toughest test’ for Abbott

Considering sending troops into Ukraine to secure MH17 victims’ bodies was Tony Abbott’s most agonising decision.

Considering sending Australian troops into Ukraine in an attempt to force Russian-backed rebels to surrender the bodies of Australian and other victims of the shooting down of MH17 was the most agonising decision Tony Abbott faced in his two years as prime minister.

The former prime minister said yesterday that discussions with the Dutch about a joint military operation — involving up to 1000 troops — to forcibly reclaim civilian bodies after the Malaysia Airlines tragedy had been very serious.

“When it looked like those Russian-backed rebels in Ukraine were not going to release the bodies, we were talking about the National Security Committee table of what military options we might have — that is when you know things are getting very serious,” he said in an interview with The Weekend Australian.

“Luckily the bodies started to shift — I assumed the Russians were tapping our conversations and didn’t want to take on those Aussies.”

In February Mr Abbott confirmed, in part, a report in The Australian last year that there
had been plans between Australian and Dutch military commanders to send 1000 troops into Ukraine.

The proposed deployment was to secure the crash site of MH17, which was downed in disputed territory, allegedly by pro-Russian rebels, after Mr Abbott warned that the bodies of dead Australian were at risk of being “violated”.

A total of 38 Australian residents and citizens were among the 298 passengers on board the Malaysia Airlines plane when it was shot down over eastern Ukraine on July 17 last year.

‘‘We did talk to the Dutch about this, as the Australian people would have expected,” Mr Abbott told parliament.

‘‘We were not going to allow dead Australians to be violated … We will never, never apologise for standing up for the rights of Australians here and abroad.”

Yesterday he said “thank God” it had not come to the point of having to send in troops.

Mr Abbott was criticised last year for saying he would “shirt-front” Russian President Vladimir Putin if he did not exercise his authority with the Russian-backed rebels to ensure the crash site was secure and that the victims would be treated properly.