Bodies of MH17 victims leave Ukraine for the Netherlands

Two military transport planes, one Dutch and one Australian, departed at midday, heading for Eindhoven air base where relatives of the victims are waiting.

Soldiers carry a coffin with the remains of a victim of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 to a military plane during a ceremony in the airport of Kharkiv, Ukraine, 23 July 2014. A Dutch transport aircraft with 14 coffins leaves the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, transporting the first victims of the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 to the Netherlands. Evert-Jan Daniels/EPAShow less

KHARKIV, Ukraine // Two military aircraft carrying the first bodies of victims of the Malaysia Airlines crash left the embattled plains of eastern Ukraine on Wednesday, bringing some consolation to grieving relatives amid questions about who brought the plane down.

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 17.

Ukraine and western nations are pressing the pro-Russian rebels who control the crash site to allow an unfettered an investigation, something Russian president Vladimir Putin said he would use his influence to achieve. Though confident that a missile brought down the aircraft, US officials say Russia’s role remains unclear.

Two military transport planes, one Dutch and one Australian, departed at midday, heading for Eindhoven air base.

There Dutch King Willem-Alexander, Queen Maxima, Prime Minister Mark Rutte and hundreds of relatives will be waiting.

For one grieving mother, the arrival of the bodies marked a new stage of mourning and brought to an end the pain of seeing television images of victims lying in the undulating fields or in body bags being loaded into a train.

“If I have to wait five months for identification, I can do it,” said Silene Fredriksz-Hoogzand, whose son, Bryce, and his girlfriend Daisy Oehlers died in the crash.

“Waiting while the bodies were in the field and in the train was a nightmare.”

Dutch government spokesman Lodewijk Hekking said about 60 coffins were expected.

There was confusion as well about how many of the 282 corpses which the rebels said they have found 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. More remains could be found once the body bags are examined fully.

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 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 that Russia was responsible for “creating the conditions” that led to thecrash, but they offered no evidence of direct Russian government involvement.

The officials said the plane was likely shot down by an SA-11 surface-to-air missile fired by Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.

They 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