Kerry Says Missiles Used in MH17 Attack Came from Russia as West Threatens Sanctions over Crash Site Access

The missile system used to shoot down a Malaysian airliner was handed to pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine by Moscow, the top U.S. diplomat said Sunday, as the West warned Russia it could face further EU sanctions if it did not press pro-Kremlin separatists to allow unfettered access to the crash site of flight MH17.

"It's pretty clear that this is a system that was transferred from Russia in the hands of separatists," U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told CNN, saying that a sophisticated SA-11 system had been used in Thursday's crash.

"We know with confidence, with confidence that the Ukrainians did not have such a system anywhere near the vicinity at that point in time. So it obviously points a very clear finger at the separatists."

Kerry laid out U.S. evidence which he said pointed to the involvement of the separatists in Thursday's horrific crash saying Washington had "extraordinary circumstantial evidence."

"We picked up the imagery of this launch. We know the trajectory," he told NBC's Meet the Press. "We know where it came from. We know the timing."

"And it was exactly at the time that this aircraft disappeared from the radar. We also know, from voice identification, that the separatists were bragging about shooting it down afterwards."

What was now happening at the crash site where international investigators have only had limited access was "really grotesque," Kerry said.

"There are reports of drunken separatist soldiers unceremoniously piling bodies into trucks, removing both bodies, as well as evidence, from the site," Kerry alleged.

The U.S. secretary of state renewed calls to Russian President Vladimir Putin to step up and pressure the rebels to allow unfettered access to the site.

"It is clear that Russia supports the separatists, supplies the separatists, encourages the separatists, trains the separatists. And Russia needs to step up and make a difference here," Kerry added on NBC.

Meanwhile, the U.S. embassy in Kiev described as genuine alleged intercepted phone conversations that were released by Ukraine’s security service of pro-Russian rebels discussing how they shot down Malaysian airliner MH17.

Ukraine's SBU security agency on Thursday released recordings of what it claimed were phone talks involving rebels and a Russian military intelligence officer admitting that they had hit the passenger jet after mistaking it for a military aircraft. 

The recordings were presented as key evidence to back up Kiev's claims that rebels -- supported by Russia -- downed the jet while the separatists accused Ukraine's army of being responsible.

"Audio data provided to the press by the Ukrainian security service was evaluated by Intelligence Community analysts who confirmed these were authentic conversations between known separatist leaders," the U.S. embassy in Ukraine said in a statement.

In one of the recordings a rebel commander nicknamed the "Major" says rebels shot down the plane and tells a disbelieving comrade that the jet is "100 percent a civilian aircraft."

On Sunday Ukraine's security agency released a fresh batch of alleged leaked conversations of rebels organizing to hide the flight's black boxes from international monitors at the crash site.

Ukraine said Sunday that it could not ensure the safety of investigators at the crash site of downed Malaysian airliner MH17 in an area under the control of pro-Russian rebels.

"We as the Ukrainian authorities cannot provide security on this territory," deputy prime minister Volodymyr Groysman told journalists.

Earlier on Sunday, pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine said they had recovered objects which appear to be the black boxes of the downed airliner and are willing to hand them over to international investigators.

"Jet parts resembling the black boxes were discovered at the crash site," said Alexander Borodai, prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, adding that they would be handed over to "international experts if they arrive."

Borodai also said bodies which have been removed from the crash site will be kept in refrigerated carriages on a train near the scene "until the experts arrive."

The rebel said his teams had taken the corpses away from the crash site "out of respect for the families" and because "it is becoming inhumane in these conditions."

"We couldn't wait any longer because of the heat and also because there are many dogs and wild animals in the zone, he added.

Meanwhile, France, Britain and Germany warned Russia Sunday it could face further EU sanctions if it did not press pro-Kremlin separatists in Ukraine to allow unfettered access to the crash site of flight MH17.

Francois Hollande, Angela Merkel and David Cameron held a conference call Sunday morning to discuss the situation in eastern Ukraine.

"They... agreed that the EU must reconsider its approach to Russia and that foreign ministers should be ready to impose further sanctions on Russia when they meet on Tuesday," a spokesman for Downing Street said in a statement, adding that Cameron was due to speak to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin later Sunday.

A French presidency statement about the three-way conference call similarly warned that "consequences" would be drawn at Tuesday's meeting "if Russia does not immediately take the necessary measures."

The presidency said the three leaders had agreed to call on Putin to pressure the rebels into allowing rescuers and investigators "free and total access to the site of the MH17 flight disaster to accomplish their mission."

"Russia must understand that resolving the Ukrainian crisis is more than ever an imperative after this tragedy which has outraged the entire world," it added.

Cameron had already raised the prospect of fresh EU sanctions against Russia, warning in the Sunday Times that Moscow should be held accountable if it was confirmed that MH17 was downed by a missile fired from an area held by pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine.

The European Union has so far hit 72 Ukraine and Russian figures with travel bans and asset freezes over the crisis, but divisions over how far to go given some member states' close economic ties with Russia has left Brussels trailing Washington which wants the bloc to do much more.

Earlier on Sunday, a top Ukrainian rebel leader said that the pro-Russian fighters will guarantee the safety of international monitors at the Malaysian jet's crash site if Kiev agrees to a truce.

"We declare that we will guarantee the safety of international experts on the scene as soon as Kiev concludes a ceasefire agreement," the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic's deputy premier Andrei Purgin said in a statement.

He urged Kiev to "immediately conclude such an agreement" with the rebels.

Failure to do so would give the impression that the government is made up of "dangerous lunatics, bloodthirsty maniacs (who are) dangerous not only for the residents of Donbass but also for the world community," Purgin warned.

Purgin's statement came as the international community piled pressure on Russia to get the Moscow-backed rebels to grant investigators full access to the crash site of the Malaysian MH17 jet.

However, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said later on Sunday that international forensic experts will finally reach the Ukrainian rebel-held crash site on Monday.

"The OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) intends early tomorrow to take the identification mission, with the Dutch experts, to the site," Rutte told reporters in The Hague. 

He said that the Dutch would be coordinating the task of identifying the 298 dead from Thursday's Malaysia Airways crash.

Fighting has continued to rage between government forces and rebels in the east since the plane came down, with 13 people wounded in the last 24 hours just 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Grabove.

Dutch Prime Minister Frans Timmermans, meanwhile, is due to fly to the United Nations in New York to help "build a coalition" to get the bodies back, Rutte said.

Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Rutte will meet on Monday with relatives of the 193 Dutch citizens killed in the crash.

Amid growing anger in the Netherlands over lack of access to the bodies, Rutte declined to answer questions about possible Dutch or NATO military intervention to secure the crash site.

"There's one aim and that's getting the people back," said Rutte.