80 bodies 'remain at MH17 crash site� asinvestigators move in

On a visit to the crash site on Wednesday, The Telegraph saw smoke on the horizon and heard theboom of artillery from the town of Shakhtarsk, seven miles to the south, where Ukrainian forces arereportedly trying to seize a main road towards Donetsk.

Natalya Voloshina, head of the village council in Petropavlivka, where part of the plane fell, said:"There's a feeling the front line is moving towards us. I think they will attack soon. Yesterday therewas a lot of shooting and explosions."

Mrs Voloshina said she had received little guidance from higher authorities about what to do withthe crash debris. "There was some human remains that lay for some days on the edge of the villageover there," she said. "In the end they disappeared; I think some dogs carried them off."

A Ukrainian soldier stands guard on top a humvee with a Ukrainian flag behind him at a check-pointin Donetsk, eastern Ukraine (Getty)

Lidiya Khirna, 64, a former welder in a military factory, said: "When the plane come down we sawchildren's toys, personal things scattered around. We're still discovering them. Yesterday I found aflip-flop in my marrow plants. We carried flowers to the wreckage to honour the dead. It's beenawful, so many tears."

Barry Sweeney, the father of 28-year-old flight victim Liam Sweeney, said he was glad the site wassecure but alarmed by the idea of "people...just lying there."

He said: "Obviously, it's been a long, long thirteen days. We're in a situation where we need to geteverybody back so we can get them identified and get them home - the sooner the better.

"I'm just trying to be positive. We can't move forward until something happens, but given thesituation we've just got to hope that he's either back or on his way back.

"Everybody's been lovely. Cameron has promised they will do all they can to make sure everything'sall right. But obviously not everything's in his hands, because it's worldwide, really - there's 17nations involved.

"We need to get them home respectfully and peacefully. The sooner we can get them all back, thebetter."

Julie Bishop, Australia's foreign minister, who is visiting Kiev, said she was concerned that Moscowwas trying to hinder the investigation into the crash by fuelling the conflict.

"My great fear is Russia is actively undermining this process," she said.

People cross a damaged bridge with their car in the village of Debaltseve, in the Donetsk region,eastern Ukraine (Getty)

"We learnt today that there could be the remains of up to 80 bodies on the site. We are determinedto access the site, so that we can collect the remains with some dignity and return them to theNetherlands where they can be identified."

Most bodies are thought to have been removed from the area, which is entirely in rebel territory, toa refrigerated train and a morgue. Some have already been sent to Holland.

But the OSCE said earlier this week that there were still human remains, possessions and debristhat needed to be recovered or examined.

Also yesterday, Ukraine's parliament gave approval for Holland and Australia to send 950 "armedpersonnel" to the country to protect investigative teams at the site. Sniffer dogs will be allowed tojoin the recovery effort.

Meanwhile, a ban on trading in the shares or bonds of five major Russian banks will come into forcetoday as part of wider EU sanctions against Moscow for its aggression against Ukraine.

The measures aim to cut off Russia's access to European financial markets, transactions that arealmost entirely carried out in the City of London. EU legislation published yesterday afternoonblacklists five banks, Russia's largest lender Sberbank, VTB, Gazprombank, VEB and RussianAgriculture Bank.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ukraine/11004442/80-bodies-remain-at-MH17-crash-site-as-investigators-move-in.html