MH17: Julie Bishop arrives in Kharkiv as Australia pushes to secure Malaysia Airlines crash site

Updated

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has visited Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine as Australia continues to push for greater security and access to the MH17 crash site.

Ms Bishop signed an agreement with her Dutch counterpart, Frans Timmermans, on Friday morning allowing Australian investigators to work at the site.

Both foreign ministers later attended a ceremony in Kharkiv marking the journey of MH17 victims' bodies from Ukraine to the Netherlands.

The push came as investigators at the scene found a previously undiscovered part of the Malaysia Airlines plane's fuselage, along with more bodies, more than a week after the Boeing 777 was shot down.

It is understood the location of the bodies has been marked with a white flag, but investigators do not have the facilities available to handle human remains.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has meanwhile confirmed a further 100 federal police officers and a small number of Defence personnel have been deployed to Europe ahead of a possible "humanitarian mission" linked to the tragedy.

The fresh discovery of the wreckage has highlighted an urgent need for the crash area to be thoroughly searched, but continued fighting in the surrounding region has hampered the efforts of investigators.

A spokesman for the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Michael Bociurkiw, says the piece of fuselage that was found "appeared out of nowhere".

"The most significant find today was we went into a heavily wooded area and found a huge piece of fuselage," Mr Bociurkiw said.

"I think this is the part of the plane that came down which ... travellers would say resembles an airline. The windows were still intact and if one wanted to they could even climb inside and be covered.

"It almost appeared out of nowhere because there were no tell-tale signs, no broken branches, nothing to indicate that a piece of fuselage had landed there."

Mr Bociurkiw said investigators were also closely examining the area of the crash site where the cockpit had landed.

Sorry, this video has expired Video: OSCE spokesman Michael Bociurkiw details efforts to recover bodies (ABC News)

"The other thing the investigators took an interest in was the cockpit area because there are still personal and professional belongings of the crew in there," he said.

"There is also a lot of sensitivity around human remains ... and for the second day in a row we did come across more human remains, not much, but it does indicate that they are there and ... that a very detailed sweep of the entire area will probably be needed to make sure nothing is missed."

Pro-Russian rebels have continually caused problems during the investigation, blocking access to the site and harassing recovery workers.

However, the OSCE says there were no incidents overnight, as they were joined by experts from Australia and Malaysia.

Another 100 AFP officers deployed to Europe

On Friday, Mr Abbott's office has announced a New Zealand citizen who had resided in Australia was among the crash victims, bringing the total number of Australian citizens and residents killed to 38.

Mr Abbott earlier announced a further 100 AFP officers will be deployed to the Netherlands ahead of any mission to help secure the crash site.

Federal Police Commissioner Tony Negus says it is on top of the 90 officers already working on the tragedy, which killed 298 people.

"We have pre-deployed 50 people to London. We have 40 people working in the Ukraine and Netherlands doing the painstaking work around the identification," he said.

Mr Abbott says Australia is close to finalising an agreement which could see potentially armed police assisting with investigations and recovering remains.

"It is a fundamentally humanitarian mission. That is what it is. A humanitarian mission to do the right thing by the grieving families of Australia and the wider world," he said.

"Let's never forget that there were 298 innocent people on that aircraft. They have been wronged. Their countries have been wronged.

"This is a humanitarian mission [to], as far as we can, after the event, do the right thing by the victims and to do the right thing by their families."

Mr Abbott, who spoke with US president Barack Obama on Friday, says a small number of Defence personnel are also heading to Europe.

"Many of the AFP deployed won't be armed. Some of them could be armed and yes, there will be some ADF as part of this deployment, should it go ahead," he said.

Three Australian officials, including a forensic specialist, have now visited the crash site, which is now officially the responsibility of Dutch investigators.

The Government says it will help Australian officials move around and give them legal cover in Ukraine.

"I feel confident that with the legal and operational matters underway that we'll be in a position to start work on the site without much further delay," Ms Bishop said.

Asked whether families should prepare themselves for a delay of weeks or even longer before the bodies of the 298 victims are sent home, Ms Bishop said: "We're not talking about weeks, we're talking about days."

Another 74 bodies have been flown into the city of Eindhoven, where they will be examined by forensics experts for identification.

An RAAF C17 and a Dutch military plane were used to transport the second group of bodies to Eindhoven.

A formal reception was once again staged on the tarmac and crowds gathered at the air base's gates to pay their respects as the procession of hearses passed.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian people face fresh elections in October after their prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk resigned.

Both parties have now pulled out of the government, causing it to collapse. However, in 30 days the president will be able to call fresh elections with the aim to get rid of the old administration.

ABC/wires

Topics: unrest-conflict-and-war, world-politics, government-and-politics, ukraine, australia, russian-federation, netherlands

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