31 Jul 2014 16:41

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.