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The inquiry into the shooting down of Flight MH17 risks becoming hopelessly compromised by the failure of official investigators to inspect the crash site properly — giving rebels ten days to destroy and tamper with vital evidence.

The probable launch site of the ground-to-air missile, found by a Telegraph reporting team, also remains unexplored by the Dutch officials leading the investigation.

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Experts fear that the inquiry has become bogged down almost before it has begun, raising the prospect of years of wrangling between the Kremlin and the West over what happened to the Malaysia Airlines jet, which crashed into a field in eastern Ukraine killing all 298 people on board.

A team of unarmed Dutch troops – made up of military police and special forces – and Australian police is finally to be deployed this week on the ground in rebel-held eastern Ukraine in an attempt to secure the site.

Until now, fears for their safety at the hands of heavily armed militia have prevented official crash inspectors from going there, although hundreds of journalists as well as locals have visited the scene over several days. The circumstantial evidence against Russian-backed separatists seems overwhelming.