DPR denies arrival of int'l experts to Boeing crash site
DONETSK. July 31 (Interfax) - International experts have not gone to the Malaysian Boeing crash site because of non-stop clashes bordering the area, the press office of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) said.
"Experts are in Donetsk for now. The Ukrainian army not ceasing fire," the DPR press office told Interfax on Thursday.
"As of now, only Ukrainian army impedes this process," the press office said.
The first group of international experts has managed to get to the Malaysian Boeing 777 crash site in the Donetsk region, Australian Foreign Minister Julia Bishop said earlier on Thursday. "Great news as Dutch-Aussie advance-party of experts have just made it on to #MH17 crash site. At last work begins to bring our people home," Bishop tweeted.
Prior to this, experts of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) special monitoring mission said that together with experts from Australia and the Netherlands they were on their way to the Boeing crash site taking a new route.
The Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 plane en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed in the Donetsk region on July 17 and the 298 people on board were killed.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military has laid the responsibility for the fire near the Boeing crash site on participants of armed formations resisting them.
The settlement of Pobednoye in the Lutuhyne district of the Luhansk region, which is near the Malaysian plane crash site, came under gunfire on Thursday, the press office of the Ukrainian operation said.
According to the information of the press office, the fire was held from two Grad multiple rocket systems.
The military laid the responsibility for the gunfire on members of armed formations and said they did not comply with the UN and OSCE demands to cease fire near the Boeing crash site.
At that, according to the press office, on July 31 Ukrainian troops participating in the active phase of the operation "only defend their own positions from attacks."