THE chances of Australian air crash investigators returning to the scene of downed airliner MH17 in east Ukraine appear remote, as fighting raged yesterday despite a supposed ceasefire.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop this week told Parliament she hoped Australian air crash investigators and their AFP protectors would be able to return to the scene of Malaysian Airlines plane, which was shot down by Russian insurgents in July, killing all 298 people on-board.

Not all of the victims’ bodies have been recovered and investigators still wanted to piece events together.

But on the outskirts of the rebel-controlled city of Donetsk, close to the crash site, violence yesterday flared with at least 10 people killed, including teachers and parents showing up for the first day of school.

Four adults, including two school security guards, were killed and six more died when another shell struck a minibus at a bus stop about 500 metres from the school. Dozens of others were injured.

Children were forced to take shelter in the basement of the school as mortar shells reined down about them.

Shooting and bombings have only marginally eased since Kiev and pro-Russian separatists last month signed a ceasefire but yesterday’s civilian death toll has been the highest.

Both the rebels and Kiev-backed government forces blamed each other for the bombing; a ritual they have both done since the outbreak of hostilities in April began seeing significant civilian casualties.

Five Ukrainian soldiers were also wounded yesterday. Ukraine Military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said the situation in the region remained tense and there had been an escalation of rebel

attacks about Donetsk since the ceasefire.

He said despite the recent bombings observers from the Organisation for the Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) continued to patrol the region recording ceasefire violations.

He appealed to the European Union and newly appointed NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg, to maintain sanctions against Russia which he accuses of continuing to supply arms and personnel to the rebels.

Winter is also starting to set in and that too could render the site about the aircraft inaccessible or at least more of a challenge.

Meanwhile, Russia has slashed its gas supplies to Slovakia by 50 per cent after it became clear the Slovaks were on-passing some supplies to the war-torn Ukraine.

Poland was recently also forced to cut on-passing gas to Ukraine after Russia also cut its supply.

Russia has also put pressure on Hungary to cease dealing with the Ukraines; after

a visit from Russian officials Hungary announced due to “technical” issues it could no longer re-export gas to Ukraine also.

Russia cut Ukraine’s direct supply of gas in July and Kiev has warned its citizens it would be a bleak winter for many.

Many of those suffering are in rebel-held capital Donetsk that has only electricity and water for a few hours a day, few shops prepared to open and remains under martial law.