The biggest pieces of wreckage have vanished, hauled away to the Netherlands for analysis, and green stalks of new grass are poking through the burnt ground where the centre section exploded.

But a year after Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 was destroyed over easternUkraine, the shadow of death still hangs heavily over Grabovo, Petropavlivka, and Rosipnoye, the villages where the 298 victims fell to earth.

Under foot, bulbous fragments of melted metal litter the black earth, and a faint but evil smell still hangs in the air - a mixture of aviation fuel and decaying human bodies.

“When the wind is in the west the houses next to the crash site get it worst,” said Vladimir Berezhnoi, the mayor of Grabovo. “We still find things. Fragments - not flesh, because the birds got to them you understand. But teeth, fingers, bones of course.

“I was working some land at the end of May and found a passport - Dutch I think - and a mobile phone. It still worked - think of that, all winter under the snow and it still worked. We handed it to the investigators.