Ukraine Fighting Again Stops MH17 Investigators, Ban Urges Instant Truce

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U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday called on Kiev and pro-Russian rebels to immediately stop fighting to allow investigators to reach the crash site of the downed Malaysian plane.

"The families of this horrific tragedy deserve closure and the world demands answers -- international teams must be allowed to conduct their work," said Ban in a statement released by his spokesman.

The appeal came after investigators and forensic teams from the Netherlands, Australia and Malaysia were forced to turn back for the fourth consecutive day, due to fighting between Ukrainian forces and separatist fighters in east Ukraine.

Saying he was "deeply disturbed" by the developments, Ban called "on all parties to immediately halt hostilities in the proximity of the crash site so as to allow the international teams unimpeded access to the site."

"There are victims' remains yet to be found," Ban said, and "key pieces of evidence remain at the site."

Over 200 bodies from the 298 victims have been recovered from the site and sent to the Netherlands and there have been concerns of evidence tampering. 

Dutch police on Wednesday said it was unlikely they would be able to access the site of the Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 crash in east Ukraine because of ongoing combat.

The head of the Dutch recovery mission in Ukraine, Pieter-Jaap Aalbersberg, also said 68 Malaysian experts and police officers were expected in Kiev on Thursday to join the group.

The Malaysians will then travel to Kharkiv in east Ukraine, closer to the crash site.

"Unfortunately, we don’t expect the security situation to improve enough over the next few days," Aalbersberg told reporters in Kiev.

"This makes it less likely that we will reach the crash site in the immediate future. There is still too much fighting in the area," he said.

Aalbersberg said Dutch police had to scrap plans to visit the site on Wednesday with Australian police and monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

"Tomorrow we will try again from Donetsk," the rebel bastion in east Ukraine where the international mission is stationed, he said.

The plane with 298 people on board came down on July 17 in an area of east Ukraine where pro-Russian separatists are battling government forces.

The Netherlands, which is leading the crash probe and body identification, lost 193 citizens on the flight.

The U.N. Security Council last week adopted an Australian-backed resolution condemning the downing of the passenger plane, demanding that all military operations cease and calling for a full investigation.

Russia and Ukraine have traded accusations over the fighting in east Ukraine, with Kiev accusing Moscow of backing the separatist rebels and most likely providing the weaponry that brought down the passenger plane.

Kiev said its troops were pressing on with an offensive to take back towns near the downed jet, with a "mopping up" operation ongoing in the town of Ilovaysk, some 40 kilometers away.

The army said troops had also taken the town of Avdiyivka, a dozen kilometers to the north of Donetsk.

Fighting also raged around another insurgent stronghold, Lugansk, where local authorities said one civilian died and ten were injured in the past 24 hours.

"There will be no convoy with Dutch experts traveling from Donetsk to the site where flight MH17 crashed. The situation along the route is too unsafe," lead investigator Pieter Jaap Aalbersberg said in a Dutch foreign ministry statement earlier in the day.

A reconnaissance team from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) was stopped on its way to the site in eastern Ukraine in the morning, and warned of shots being fired on and around the route there.

"After considering alternative routes or negotiating with the separatists, the OSCE decided to turn back to Donetsk," in rebel-controlled east Ukraine, said the statement.

"The security situation is being assessed on a continuous basis. We will keep trying to reach the crash site in the coming days, but the question is whether it will become any safer."

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