Intl mission will try to reach Malaysian Boeing crash site in Ukraine on Thursday
DONETSK. July 31 (Interfax) - International experts hope to be able to access the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, a spokesman for the self-proclaimed "Donetsk People's Republic" (DPR) told Interfax.
"They will try to reach the place today. Employees of the OSCE [Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe] are currently coordinating their efforts with the army. We plan to use every opportunity available to launch this work," the spokesman said.
The international investigators were unable to access the Boeing-777 crash site on July 30 due to fighting in the area.
Ukrainian Minister of Regional Development, Construction and the Housing and Utilities Sector Volodymyr Groysman was quoted as saying by the ministry's press service that militiamen had not allowed the OSCE's experts to access the Flight MH17 crash site.
"The group of international experts of the OSCE was unable to reach the air crash site once again this morning. The group was stopped by terrorists who did not allow them to proceed further saying that the situation at the crash site was not safe. The experts are currently staying in Debaltseve," Groysman was quoted as saying by his press service.
"This provocative conduct by the terrorists indicates that they clearly intend to use all means available to them to hamper the investigation and to deny unhindered access to the crash site to representatives of the investigation being conducted by a group of international experts coordinated by the Netherlands. Acting on orders issued by the president and the prime minister, the Ukrainian side will continue to make every effort to secure the experts' access to the site of the tragedy and to help them conduct an objective and impartial inquiry," the Ukrainian minister said.
The Malaysia Airlines passenger jet on a flight from Amsterdam and Kuala Lumpur crashed in eastern Ukraine on July 17, killing all 298 people onboard.
