Bodies of Malaysia jet MH17 victims to leave Ukraine today

Kharkiv, Ukraine: Ukraine prepared a departure ceremony for the bodies of Malaysia Airlines MH17 passengers and crew who became victims of fighting raging far below them on the plains of eastern Ukraine. Deputy Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman said Wednesday’s ceremony was set for 11 am local time (0800 GMT) at the airport in Kharkiv, before the bodies are flown to the Netherlands. The Dutch government declared a day of national mourning as the country prepared for the arrival of the first bodies in the afternoon. The crash on Thursday killed all 298 people — most of them Dutch citizens — aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17. Dutch government spokesman Lodewijk Hekking said about 60 coffins were expected to arrive on Wednesday afternoon on two military transport planes, one Dutch and one Australian. Hundreds of relatives were expected to travel to Eindhoven air base where Dutch King Willem-Alexander, Queen Maxima and Prime Minister Mark Rutte will wait for the flights. It was unclear how many of the 282 corpses reported found so far were on the train which arrived in Kharkiv, a government-controlled city, on Tuesday. Jan Tuinder, the Dutch official in charge of the international team dealing with the dead, said that at least 200 bodies were aboard the train and that more remains could be found once the body bags are examined fully. [caption id=“attachment_1630693” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] The site of the plain crash in Ukraine. AP[/caption] Wreckage from the aircraft fell on territory controlled by pro-Russian separatists who have been battling the Kiev government since April. US officials say the MH17 plane was probably shot down by a missile, most likely by accident. The European Union on Tuesday imposed sanctions against more Russian individuals but refrained from targeting entire sectors of the Russian economy while waiting for clearer evidence of Moscow’s role in the disaster. Senior US intelligence officials said Tuesday that Russia was responsible for “creating the conditions” that led crash, but they offered no evidence of direct Russian government involvement. The officials, who briefed reporters Tuesday under ground rules that their names not be used, said the plane was likely shot down by an SA-11 surface-to-air missile fired by Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. The officials cited intercepts, satellite photos and social media postings by separatists, some of which have been authenticated by US experts. The intelligence officials were cautious in their assessment, noting that while the Russians have been arming separatists in eastern Ukraine, the US had no direct evidence that the missile used to shoot down the passenger jet came from Russia. Associated Press