Members of the security council vote on a resolution concerning access to the crash site of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 during a security council meeting at United Nations headquarters, Monday, July 21, 2014. The resolution was adopted by a unanimous vote. Photograph: Seth Wenig/AP
5.04pm AEST
Summary
•The train carrying the bodies has left Donetsk and is on its way to Kharkiv, where Ukrainian and Dutch recovery teams are waiting.
•Heavy fighting broke out in Donetsk between rebels and the Ukrainian military, killing five people. Many civilians evacuated from the rebel stronghold, and all were told to stay indoors. A convoy of separatist forces was seen leaving the city.
•Recent reports claim a suicide bomber has attacked a Ukrainian checkpoint.
•Russian ambassador to Malaysia Lyudmila Vorobyeva has told media in Kuala Lumpur she is "convinced" the separatist rebels were not behind the shooting down of the plane.
•Protests outside the Russian embassy in Malaysia have begun.
•World leaders and foreign dignitaries have signed condolence books at ceremonies in Australia and Malaysia.
•The UN Security Council adopted a resolution demanding access to the crash site and an independent investigation,as well as a ceasefire around the area. The US ambassador accused Russia of telling separatists "We have your backs," and Russia's envoy implied the US and Ukraine were turning "tragedy into a farce". Dutch prosecutors opened a war crimes investigationinto the downing of flight MH17.
•Separatists handed two MH17 black boxes to a Malaysian delegation, after a separatist leader made a deal with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak.
•US President Barack Obama said "the burden is on Russia"to use its influence and ensure full access to the crash site,as well as to allow a "immediate and transparent investigation". The US reiterated its assertion that a SA-11 missile system shot down MH17 from separatist-controlled territory, and its suspicion of Russian aid.
•The EU is poised to increase sanctions on Russia at a meeting of foreign ministers Tuesday in Brussels. The UK and Germany have called to "raise the pressure" on Russia, but France will likely resist calls to cancel a €1.2bn contract to sell assault vehicles to Russia.
•Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said separatist should be designated "terrorists" by the international community, and denied aclaim from Russia's defense ministry that a Ukrainian warplane was flying near MH17 at the time of the crash. Russian army officials denied providing a Buk missile system to separatists.
•Russia's President Vladimir Putin delivered an address after speaking with several world leaders and called for a "humanitarian corridor" to all for recover and investigation. He stopped short of calling on rebels to disarm, saying the disaster should not be used for "narrow, political reasons".
4.57pm AEST
The Sky News reporter, Colin Brazier, who was criticised for handling the belongings of one of the passengers, has written to apologise and explain his actions. It's worth read his piece in its entirety. Here is an excerpt:
Good journalism takes many things and the empathy I hope [my children] have wrought in me is one of them. But so is understanding the boundaries of decency and taste. And from time to time, we screw up.
At the weekend I got things wrong. If there was someone to apologise to in person, I would. While presenting Sky's lunchtime coverage of the flight MH17 disaster, I stooped down to look at a piece of debris. It was a child's suitcase. I put my hand inside and lifted up a water bottle and a set of keys. As I did so my mental circuit-breaker finally engaged and I apologised instantly on-air for what I was doing.
Brazier, who has reported from aviation disasters before, also described the scene at the crash site.
There are roadblocks manned by sullen-looking teenagers cradling AK-47s, but no meaningful law and order. It is a warzone and the men in charge carry guns and grudges.
So I, and many others, were allowed to walk around the crash site at will.
The sights were shocking. I could not comprehend what we seeing. Bodies and body parts everywhere. I phoned my wife. "It's a butcher's yard", I said.
4.28pm AEST
A forensic expert heading to the Netherlands to assist with victim identification for the investigation expects it to be similar to his experience working in the aftermath of Australia's Black Saturday bushfires in 2009.
Professor Ranson, the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine (VIFM) deputy director, has identified victims of the Boxing Day tsunami, the Bali bombing and the Kosovo war.
"I think the process is very similar to the work we did in the Victorian bushfires," he told AAP.
"I imagine that there will be a number of bodies - some of those will be intact and some will be non-intact, and we will be using similar methods."
He said he had seen reports of evidence tampering and degradation of the crash site on the news.
"It's very important to ensure the proper collection of that material so that we do not lose items that are useful in the identification process, but I have no detailed information."
A mortuary technician, two odontologists and a fingerprint expert will join Prof Ranson and the remainder of the Australian contingent.
4.14pm AEST
Australian treasurer Joe Hockey has commented on the issue of Vladimir Putin attending the G20 in Brisbane later this year.
He said nobody knows what the fallout will be from the downing of MH17, but he hopes Russia still attends the summit.
"The Russians have said they will co-operate with all this - let's find out if they are fair dinkum or not," Mr Hockey told Sky News while on an official visit to New Zealand.
"Rarely are great things achieved by excluding people from the conversation," he said.
Ultimately, the decision about Russia's attendance rested with G20 members.
4.01pm AEST
From Reuters:
A spokesman for Ukraine's military operation in the country's east said on Tuesday a suicide bomber driving a minibus packed with explosives had attacked a Ukrainian checkpoint during the night.
A spokesman for the "anti-terrorist operation" against separatists who have rebelled in eastern Ukraine told 112 television channel: "A checkpoint was attacked by a suicide bomber in a van packed with explosives."
He gave no further details.
3.12pm AEST
The train carrying the remains of 280 people killed was finally allowed to leave eastern Ukraine as the militants declared a truce around the crash site.
"We will order a ceasefire in an area of 10 kilometres around" the site of the disaster, said Alexander Borodai at the black box handover press conference.
Then hours later, the rebels released the bodies, which had been sitting on a train in Donetsk.
It is expected to arrive in the government-controlled city of Kharkiv on Tuesday. Bodies will then be flown to the Netherlands, for forensic testing, and then repatriation to home countries.
2.56pm AEST
"We will be erring on the side of generosity when it comes to their treatment," Abbott said when pressed about speculation over compensation payments to victims' families in Australia.
2.49pm AEST
“After the crime comes the cover up,” the Australian prime minister has said a few moments ago.
"What we have seen is evidence tampering on an industrial scale, and obviously that has to stop.”
There has been some progress in the last 24 hours, said Abbott, citing the UN resolution passing in the security council, the negotiations between the rebels and the Malaysian delegation which resulted in the former handing over the black boxes.
He then detailed Operation Bring Them Home, which is headed by the country’s chief of Air Chief Marshal (retired) Angus Houston, and involves diplomatic and emergency services personnel across continents to repatriate the bodies and investigate the crash site.
An Australian c-17 plane will be involved in taking the bodies from Ukraine to the Netherlands when the train arrives in Kharkiv.
2.46pm AEST
Still in Malaysia, the Dutch embassy has opened a book of condolences in memory of the country's 193 victims.
Ambassadors from Ukraine, Mexico, United States, Iran, Germany as well as the Ambassador and Head of Delegation of the European Union to Malaysia have already signed, according to the Star.
In Canberra, Australia, politicians and foreign ambassadors have also signed a book of condolence, during a ceremony at Parliament House
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