MH17: AFP again abandon bid to reach Malaysia Airlines crash site after driving into 'battle zone'

Updated

A convoy of unarmed police officers has again abandoned attempts to reach the crash site of Malaysia Airlines MH17 amid fierce fighting in the area.

ABC correspondent Stephen McDonell says the team - including Australian and Dutch inspectors - drove into an "active battle zone" as they headed for the "chaotic and extremely dangerous" site in eastern Ukraine.

Analysis: Stephen McDonell

I'm in Donetsk, this is a city controlled by the rebels.



We were about 15 kilometres from the crash site. And you could hear rocket, you could hear artillery.



I'm completely surprised that they've gone ahead and tried to get through this area to reach the crash site.



You know, do they want somebody else to get killed, to try and reach this place?



And I know that it's frustrating, because the inspectors really want to make it there.



They really want to be able to do their job. But I can't stress just how dangerous it is, and how fluid the situation has become.



We can hear shelling from this building. They're fighting on the outskirts of Donetsk. It seems that the Ukrainians are methodically picking off town by town to retake.



The rebels are scrambling to try to hang onto this area. You see them burning around in their van, a sort of ragtag army.



They have got some serious weapons but they don't have the organisation of an army in the same way that you the Ukrainians do.



They were forced to turn back about 30 kilometres from the fields from where the plane crashed - a disaster Ukraine says was caused by shrapnel from a rocket explosion.

McDonell, who was travelling with Australian Federal Police officers, says rebels allowed the inspectors through a checkpoint but all media were stopped.

"We followed the convoy to the edge of rebel-held territory and watched as Australian Federal Police and their international counterparts drove into an active battle zone," he said.

"Reporters were stopped at the frontline. Then soon after the inspection team could be seen returning at high speed.

"Artillery and rocket fire could be heard 15 kilometres from the crash site."

He later tweeted that the failed attempt to reach the site was "dramatic and potentially very dangerous".

The Ukrainian military earlier said its forces were battling pro-Russian rebels for control of several eastern Ukrainian towns around the crash site.

It said Ukrainian troops "had entered" the towns of Shakhtarsk and Torez and "battles were continuing for the complete liberation" of the towns of Pervomaysk and Snizhne.

Rebels in the area claim the Ukrainian army has seized control of part of the vast crash site.

"The Ukrainians have taken over a part of the crash site," said Vladimir Antyufeev, first deputy prime minister of the self-styled Donetsk People's Republic.

The mission of the international team of police is to secure the site, where some remains of victims remain exposed to the elements.

The team was also forced to abandon its plans to start working at the site on Sunday as fighting flared between pro-Russian rebels and the Ukrainian military.

Safety of unarmed officers 'paramount'

The AFP officers are unarmed, with Prime Minister Tony Abbott previously saying the mission is a humanitarian one designed to claim the Australian victims' bodies.

Speaking before the second attempt to access the site, AFP Deputy Commissioner Andrew Colvin said the safety of the unarmed team is the highest priority.

"Comfortable is a broad word," Mr Colvin told reporters.

"No, we can't be comfortable but ... we have mitigated the risk to a point where we wouldn't send our people into a situation where we didn't think that they would safe.

"It is a highly volatile area and I should stress that safety is paramount in our minds, [as is the] safety of the Australian and Dutch officials and the OSCE officers as well."

There will be a total of 49 police on site, 11 of whom are Australian, although that number is expected to increase over the coming days.

McDonell says the latest incident may spark questions about whether it is worth the risk to send unarmed officers in.

"I think now there will be questions being asked, is it really worth sending people through a battle zone to try and reach the crash area?" he said.

"It's just terrible, everybody wants them to be able to reach there and remove the remains that are still in the area and to do a proper investigation but it's so dangerous.

"The fighting is so heavy, we're talking artillery, shells going everywhere, we're talking about small arms fire and it's just chaotic and extremely dangerous."

Mr Colvin said it is possible some of the remains of those killed when the passenger jet was shot down may never be recovered.

"Given the spread of the crime scene, given the nature of this disaster, the trauma on the bodies of the victims and now given the added complication of not being certain about the environment factors ... we have to be prepared for the possibility that not all remains will be recovered," he said.

Victims' families need answers and justice will be sought: Bishop

Ukraine says black boxes from MH17 show shrapnel from a rocket explosion caused the jet to crash.

Investigators leading the probe in the Netherlands have refused to confirm Kiev's information saying they are "waiting to get a more complete idea of what happened".

On the ABC's 7.30 program, Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop was asked if there would be a criminal investigation into whether Russia armed and trained the rebels believed to have shot the plane down.

Ms Bishop said those responsible would be held to account.

"We think it is very important that the families of those killed have answers, and we believe it is important that those who are responsible for this, those culpable for this act, are brought to justice," Ms Bishop said.

"After all, this was a commercial airline in commercial air space that was shot down, we believe, by a surface-to-air missile.

"And those who created the conditions to enable in to happen should account for it."

Meanwhile, the United Nations said the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 "may amount to a war crime".

All 298 people on board the flight, including 38 Australian citizens and residents, were killed.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay condemned the "horrendous shooting down" of the passenger jet and demanded a "thorough, effective, independent and impartial investigation".

The UN says fighting in east Ukraine has claimed over 1,100 lives, with both government and rebel forces using heavy weaponry in built-up areas.

Topics: unrest-conflict-and-war, disasters-and-accidents, air-and-space, ukraine, australia

First posted