MH17 Crash Site: International Team Of 70 Experts Arrives To Recover Remains

Update (3:30 p.m): The New York Times reports investigators found human remains at the MH17 crash site in eastern Ukraine Saturday. According to OSCE, the team sectioned off the site into small grids. Fighting continues around the nearby city of Donetsk while Ukrainian forces say a border checkpoint at Dolzhansk came under fire originating from the Russian side of the border.

Original story: An international team of investigators arrived at the MH17 crash site in eastern Ukraine Saturday to recover the remains of 80 bodies, but shelling forced the group to leave one area of the site, reports Agence France-Presse. Fighting between pro-Russia separatists and Ukrainian forces have hindered the recovery efforts at the site of the July 17 crash, but the sides had supposedly stopped fighting for a second day so investigators could do their work.

According to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), a team of 70 investigators and dogs arrived at the crash site near the city of Donetsk on Saturday. Reuters reports pro-Russia separatists and Ukrainian forces agreed to a cease-fire around the area, which allowed for two days of access to the site. According to Australian investigators, the remains of 80 bodies have yet to be recovered from the place where Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down on July 17, killing the 298 passengers and crew members. The U.S. and Ukraine say the plane was downed by separatists using a Buk surface-to-air missile system provided by Russia. Separatists have denied having the capability to shoot down MH17, and Russia has denied helping the separatists.

OSCE monitors described Donetsk as "tense" in its latest update. As of Friday, "Shelling on the outskirts of Donetsk city was more frequent than the previous day, with more activity in the evening hours. The SMM visited areas affected by shelling, located east and northeast of the city airport. These areas were exclusively civilian localities, with neither military nor police installations nearby." Overnight fighting led to no casualties for Ukraine, while there were reports of shelling near Luhansk, reports Reuters.