Vladimir Putin has issued a defiant warning that the MH17 crash must not be used for 'selfish political ends' and urged separatists to allow international experts access to the crash site.

Wearing a dark suit and looking tired and drawn during a rare television address, the Russian president insisted 'all people' in Ukraine had a responsibility to the families of the 298 passengers and crew who died last week.

But he added: 'No-one has the right to use this tragedy for any kind of vested interest in the political sense. Such incidents should unite people rather than separate them.'

His comments came just hours after David Cameron issued a stark warning to Putin that his billionaire ‘cronies’ will have their assets frozen in London unless Russia co-operates with the investigation.

Hitting back: Wearing a dark suit and looking tired and drawn, Russian president Vladimir Putin issued a defiant warning that the MH17 crash must not be used for 'selfish political' advantage

Rows of bodies: Bagged victims can be seen above lined up in front of a truck yesterday at the crash site, ready to be moved to the refrigerated trains

Final indignity: Rescue workers, pictured above, loaded the corpses onto trucks at the crash site in eastern Ukraine, which were then taken to refrigerated train carriages nine miles away Meanwhile, Putin has been examining samples of aviation equipment at the Production Rocket Space Centre

VLAD HITS BACK: RUSSIAN PRESIDENT'S STATEMENT ON MH17 CRASH SITE IN FULL There are already representatives of Donetsk and Lugansk working there, as well as representatives of the emergencies ministry of Ukraine and others. But this is not enough. This task force is not enough. We need more, we need a fully representative group of experts to be working at the site under the guidance of ICAO, the relevant international commission. We must do everything to provide security for the international experts on the site of the tragedy. We need to do everything to provide its [ICAO commission’s] safety, to provide the humanitarian corridors necessary for its work. In the meantime, nobody should and has no right to use this tragedy to achieve their narrowly selfish political goals. We repeatedly called upon all conflicting sides to stop the bloodshed immediately and sit down at the negotiating table. I can say with confidence that if military operations were not resumed on June 28 in eastern Ukraine, this tragedy wouldn’t have happened. Advertisement

During his television address this morning, Putin said it is necessary for 'all people' involved in the current conflict in Ukraine take responsibility for their actions.

He said there was a duty to: 'improve their responsibility to their own people, and to the people of the countries whose representatives have been victims of this crash'.

Putin added, ' We need to do everything to ensure the security and safety of the observers and the experts working at the crash site.'

The comments came as Chancellor George Osborne said the UK was prepared to take an 'economic hit' in order to put pressure on Moscow over its involvement in the Ukraine crisis.

Cameron, meanwhile, is due to make a statement to MPs later spelling out what measures he believes should be taken following the apparent shooting downing of the plane by rebels.

In what was described by Downing Street as a 'frank' conversation last night, the Prime Minister told Mr Putin his support for insurgents in eastern Ukraine had 'contributed to an appalling tragedy' and the delay in experts being able to investigate was 'indefensible'.

The chaos surrounding the handling of the crash has compounded the grief of families all around the world bereaved by the crash, who have been left unable to arrange funerals or properly mourn their dead.

Victim's relatives have made emotional appeals for the bodies to be returned as soon as possible, amid reports that the refrigeration in the carriage has only been inconsistently working.



Earlier the bodies of almost 200 victims of the MH17 plane disaster were seen decaying for a fourth day in a refrigerated train.



Since the bodies of the 298 victims fell from 33,000ft after their plane was struck by a surface-to-air missile, they were left in the open in sweltering heat for three days before being gathered up in bags, bundled on to trucks and driven away.

Grisly: The bodies of almost 200 victims of the MH17 plane disaster were seen for a fourth day in a refrigerated train which has done little to hold back the stench of decay which has already overtaken the corpses

Stench: A rebel can be seen holding his nose as the door to a carriage containing the heaped bodies is opened

The bodies were taken from there to the town of Torez, nine miles away, where they have been piled up in four refrigerated train carriages.

The refrigeration has done little to hold back the stench of decay which has already overtaken the corpses amid accusations the rebels are holding up the return of the bodies unnecessarily.

Rebel commanders have reportedly promised that the train will leave this afternoon, but gave no indication of where or whether the bodies would be handed over.

Further pressure will be put on Russia to cooperate with the crash investigation at the United Nations, after Britain, Germany and France came to the agreement that the EU must be prepared to ratchet up sanctions if they refuse.

It was not immediately known what the Malaysian team would do with the black boxes, but there was speculation they would pass the boxes on to experts with experience of reading the data

A Malaysian investigator, left, takes a black box as it is handed over by a Donetsk People's Republic official in the city of Donetsk

A meeting of EU foreign ministers tomorrow is expected to result in a more punitive sanctions regime, with Mr Putin's 'crony group' possible targets.

The threats of extensive sanctions on Russian billionaires has already spooked a number of wealthy pro-Kremlin businessmen and women.



'The economic and business elite is just in horror,' Igor Bunin, the head of the Center for Political Technology in Moscow, told Bloomberg news.

'Nobody will speak out because of the implicit threat of retribution... Any sign of rebellion and they’ll be brought to their knees,' he added.

One billionaire, speaking on condition of anonymity, added that Putin risks becoming a pariah figure as wealthy and powerful Russians seek to distance themselves from him to keep hold of their money.

The Prime Minister likened the failure to tackle Vladimir Putin to the appeasement of Hitler in the 1930s, while Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said Russia risked becoming a 'pariah state' if it carried on arming rebels

The Prime Minister likened the failure to tackle Vladimir Putin to the appeasement of Hitler in the 1930s, while Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said Russia risked becoming a 'pariah state' if it carried on arming rebels

French arms sales and German dependence on Russian fossil fuels have been seen as possible barriers to tougher measures, but Britain will argue that the whole union must share the burden. A No 10 source said the UK wanted additional names to be added to the list of Russians subject to travel bans and asset freezes under the existing criteria for EU sanctions.

These could include 'entities' - firms or organisations - as well as individuals involved in supporting efforts to destabilise Ukraine.

But there will also be an effort to extend the scope of the sanctions, to allow those who are influencing or supporting the 'Russian regime' to be targeted for sanctions, meaning oligarchs within Mr Putin's inner circle could be named.

In a round of broadcast interviews this morning, Mr Osborne accepted that Britain could not escape unscathed from taking such action against Moscow.



'This is about living in a world where international borders are respected, where commercial airliners are not shot down," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

'It is absolutely in Britain's national economic interest that that is the case.

'Of course any sanctions will have an economic impact, and we are prepared to undertake further sanctions.

'But think of the economic hit... of allowing international borders to be ignored, of allowing airliners to be shot down. That is a much greater economic hit for Britain. We are not prepared to just allow that to happen.'

Investigation: Russian president Vladimir Putin has urged separatists (right) to allow international experts (left) access to the crash site

Masked and armed: A pro-Russian fighter guards the crash site of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 near the village of Hrabove in eastern Ukraine

The separatists placed bodies from the downed Boeing 777 in refrigerated train carriages in the rebel-held town of Torez, nine miles from the crash site, and said they would remain there until the arrival of an international aviation delegation.

They also claimed the plane's black boxes had been recovered and would be handed over to the International Civil Aviation Organisation.

The UK is supporting an Australian attempt to secure a UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution, which would demand 'safe, full and unfettered access to the site" and for the bodies to be handled with respect and dignity.'

A Downing Street source said Russia had blocked an attempt to agree a press statement by the UNSC and the Government was 'realistic' about the prospect of success in getting a resolution through without it being vetoed.

Meanwhile, the US set out the evidence it claimed it had for Russian separatists being behind the atrocity.