Dutch investigators accompanied by armed rebels arrived near the MH17 crash site in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday hoping to recover debris from the doomed airliner amid fears all-out fighting could break out again.Around a dozen experts arrived in a convoy of cars but were not permitted to enter the zone where the Malaysia Airlines plane crashed in July, killing 298 people, in remote rebel-held territory east of Donetsk.
The Dutch team hopes to begin work as soon as possible but there are concerns that rebels could be gearing up for a fresh offensive despite a shaky ceasefire signed in September but dogged by localised outbreaks of fighting. Five Ukrainian soldiers were killed and nine injured in the east over the past 24 hours, military spokesman Vladyslav Seleznyov said. There has been intense shelling around Donetsk in recent days and an AFP journalist saw 28 trucks, six tanks and 14 howitzer artillery systems and two armoured personnel carriers driving through rebel territory around the city on Monday.
The Dutch team hopes to begin work as soon as possible but there are concerns that rebels could be gearing up for a fresh offensive despite a shaky ceasefire signed in September but dogged by localised outbreaks of fighting. Five Ukrainian soldiers were killed and nine injured in the east over the past 24 hours, military spokesman Vladyslav Seleznyov said. There has been intense shelling around Donetsk in recent days and an AFP journalist saw 28 trucks, six tanks and 14 howitzer artillery systems and two armoured personnel carriers driving through rebel territory around the city on Monday.