This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday told his Russian opposite number, Sergei Lavrov, investigators must be given full access to the site of the crashed Malaysian Airlines plane in eastern Ukraine, according to the State Department.

Flight MH17 was brought down by a missile on Thursday, killing all 298 people on board. Pro-Russia rebels backed by Moscow are suspected of firing the missile. President Vladimir Putin and state-run Russian media have blamed the Ukrainian government.

President Barack Obama on Friday accused Russia on Friday of failing to stop the violence that made it possible to shoot down the plane; he did not blame Russia directly. The US has said the plane was hit by a surface-to-air missile that was fired from rebel territory.

The Ukrainian president, Petro Poroshenko, said on Saturday the United Nations should recognise pro-Russia rebel groups in the east of his country as terrorists.

The State Department said on Saturday Kerry told Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, that the US was “very concerned” about reports that bodies and debris from the crash have been moved, and that observers from the Organisation for Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE) and other international investigators had been denied “proper access” to the site.

A small team of OSCE observers did gain limited access to the crash site on Saturday.

Earlier in the day, the Russian foreign ministry commented on the call between Kerry and Lavrov, saying the two diplomats had agreed that all evidence from the MH17 crash site should be made available for an “absolutely unbiased, independent and open international investigation”.

The International Civil Aviation Organisation should play a leading role in the investigation, it said.

The ministry also said the two men had agreed both countries would use their influence on the two sides in the Ukrainian conflict to end hostilities.



A statement said: “It was stressed that the conflict in Ukraine has no military solution and can only be resolved peacefully through the elaboration of a national consensus.”

The State Department did not mention any agreement, saying Kerry had urged Russia to take "immediate and clear actions to reduce tensions in Ukraine”.

Such actions, it said, would be to "call on pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine to lay down arms, release all hostages and engage in a political dialogue toward peace with the Ukrainian government; to halt the flow of weapons and fighters into eastern Ukraine; and to allow OSCE observers to help secure the border”.