Hrabove, Ukraine (CNN) -- Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and
U.S. President Barack Obama lashed out Monday at Russia over conditions at the
crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, saying Russian-backed rebels at the
site continue to impede efforts to recover bodies and investigate exactly what
happened.
Poroshenko, speaking to CNN's
Christiane Amanpour, pleaded for international solidarity against the rebels
fighting the government in Kiev.
"I don't see any
differences" between 9/11, the Lockerbie bombing and the attack on Flight
17, Poroshenko said.
Such terrorism is a danger to the
"whole world" and to "global security," he said.
Obama, speaking at nearly the
same time in Washington, called on Russia to rein in the rebel fighters
believed by many international leaders to be responsible for downing the
passenger jet and killing all 298 aboard.
He said Russia has so far failed
to stop the rebels from impeding investigators at the site and accused them of
treating remains poorly and removing evidence from the site.
"What exactly are they
trying to hide?" he said.
Obama said it was time for Russia
to exert what he called its "enormous influence" over the rebel
fighters -- who U.S. and other officials have said are armed, trained and
backed by Russia -- to persuade them to better cooperate with the international
investigation.
"It's the least they can
do," he said.
Despite the stern tone of the
Ukrainian and U.S. leaders, the spokesman for a team of European monitors at
the site said conditions have improved since a chilly reception immediately
after Flight 17 fell from the sky.
"Today we have three Dutch
forensics experts with us, and they're getting pretty much unfettered
access," Michael Bociurkiw, the spokesman for monitors from the
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, told CNN's Chris Cuomo.
The rebels even provided some
perimeter security to keep journalists at bay, creating a "dome of
tranquility" for the OSCE monitors, Dutch forensic experts and a handful
of Ukrainian aviation experts now at the scene, Bociurkiw said separately in a
briefing for reporters hosted by the Ukrainian Crisis Media Center.
Handling
the remains
Rebels also were expected to
allow a train carrying the remains of 251 of the 298 passengers to travel to
the eastern city of Kharkiv at 7 p.m. (noon ET), according to Ukrainian Vice
Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman.
Dutch forensics experts who
inspected the train Monday were "more or less" satisfied with how the
bodies were being stored," Bociurkiw said.
Poroshenko told Amanpour that the
remains of 16 people were still missing. Earlier, the Ukrainian government
issued a statement saying that 282 bodies and 87 "body fragments" had
been recovered from the sprawling crash site.
Ukrainian government officials
have said the bodies will eventually be taken to Amsterdam. Most of those who
died in the crash were Dutch.
Bociurkiw did say it remains difficult to get to the site, and
fighting between rebels and government forces in Donetsk could have a
significant impact on the investigation, he said.
Ukrainian officials and rebel forces reported fighting around the train station in Donetsk on Monday,
with city officials reporting damage to a residential building near the train
station and a nearby market catching fire after it was shelled. The train
station, however, remained in operation, the city officials said.
With air service out, an interruption in train service could
hinder the ability of investigators to get into and out of the site, Bociurkiw
said.
"That's very crucial, because it's the only remaining
transport link between here and really the outside world."
It could also affect efforts to transport the remains of the 298
people who died when Flight 17 plummeted to the ground -- the apparent victims
of a surface-to-air missile strike that U.S. officials have said appeared to be
launched from rebel-held territory near the Russian border.
Bociurkiw had no information about the status of a team of
international crash experts staging in Kharkiv to inspect the debris.
Earlier, the Ukrainian government issued a news release saying the
experts had reviewed photos of the crash scene.
Another team from the Netherlands remains in Kiev, according to
the Dutch Foreign Ministry.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte met with relatives and friends of
victims Monday, calling the session filled with sadness and "very
touching."
"All of the Netherlands is feeling their fury. All of the
Netherlands is sharing their deep sadness, and all of the Netherlands is just
gathering around all the next of kin," he said.
'An outrage made in Moscow'
Meanwhile, intelligence analysts were working furiously to
determine whether Russian officials had any direct involvement in the downing
of the jetliner -- an accusation Moscow has strongly denied.
U.S. analysts are examining phone intercepts, social media posts
and information gathered on the ground to see what role, if any, Russian
officials may have played, according to two U.S. officials directly familiar
with the latest assessment who declined to be identified because of the
sensitivity of the situation.
"We are trying to determine if they manned it, advised, or
pulled the trigger," one of the officials told CNN.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said there's no shortage of
evidence that pro-Russian rebels shot down the jet.
There's video of a launcher with one surface-to-air missile
missing, imagery showing the firing and intercepted calls with rebels claiming
credit for the strike, Kerry said.
"We know from intercepts ... that those are in fact the
voices of separatists," he told CNN's "State of the Union" on
Sunday. "And now we have a video showing a launcher moving back through a
particular area there out into Russia with at least one missing missile on
it."
British Prime Minister David Cameron didn't mince words either on
who was to blame. In an op-ed in The Sunday Times, he called the plane crash
and its aftermath "an outrage made in Moscow."
Russian President Vladimir Putin fired back with a video statement
posted on the Kremlin's official website early Monday, arguing that his country
has been pushing for peace in Ukraine.
"We have repeatedly called on all parties to immediately stop
the bloodshed and to sit down at the negotiating table. We can confidently say
that if June 28 fighting in eastern Ukraine did not resume, this tragedy most
likely would not have happened," he said. "However, no one should
have the right to use this tragedy to achieve selfish political objectives. Such
events should not divide but unite people."
He stressed that safety must be guaranteed for international
experts investigating the crash.
"We must do everything to ensure their work has full and
absolute security (and) ensure necessary humanitarian corridors are provided,"
Putin said.
On Monday, Russian officials floated the possibility that a
Ukrainian fighter jet might have downed the plane.
Russian monitoring showed a Ukrainian Su-25 fighter jet flying
along the same route and within 3 kilometers to 5 kilometers (1.9 miles to 3.1
miles) of Flight 17, Lt. Gen. Andrei Kartapolov of the Russian Army General
Staff said at a news conference, Russian state media reported.
"We would like to know why the Ukrainian plane was flying
along a civilian route on the same flight path as the Malaysian Boeing,"
Kartapolov said, according to the reports.
Pro-Russian rebels have also denied responsibility for the
shootdown.
In an interview with Cuomo broadcast Monday on CNN's "New
Day," the self-declared rebel Prime Minister in Donetsk, Alexander
Borodai, said he believed Ukrainian forces either shot the plane down with a
surface-to-air missile or, as the Russian general suggested, one of its own
fighter jets.
"We didn't have motives and desire to do that, and it is
obvious that Ukrainians have them," he said. "I can't say about
desire, but motive is obvious that the crash of this plane was beneficial to
them."
'Black boxes' found?
Borodai also told Cuomo that he believes rebels have retrieved the
jet's "black boxes," but that he couldn't say for sure because he is
not a technical expert.
Earlier, Borodai said the devices are under guard in the region.
They will not be given to Ukrainian officials, he said.
Reuters distributed video Sunday of what appeared to be an
inflight recorder found by a worker in a field. The agency labeled the video,
shot Friday, as showing one of the two flight data recorders from Flight 17.
Some Malaysian investigators flew to the Ukrainian capital of Kiev
on Saturday. But Malaysia's official news agency said they were still
negotiating with rebels over access for their team.
Law enforcement officials from the Netherlands, the United States
and Australia will help with the investigation led by the Ukrainian government.
Two FBI agents have arrived in Kiev, a senior U.S. law enforcement
official said. An investigator from the National Transportation Safety Board
was also there.
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