Obama, Poroshenko lash out at Russia, Ukranian rebels

Ukrainian President, Petro Poroshenko and US President, Barack Obama lashed out on Monday at Russia over conditions at the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, saying Russian-backed rebels still are impeding efforts to find out exactly what happened, CNN reports.

Poroshenko, speaking to CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, pleaded for international solidarity against the pro-Russian rebels believed by many international officials to be responsible for firing the missile that downed the plane Thursday, killing all 298 aboard.

“I don’t see any differences” between 9/11, the Lockerbie bombing and the attack on Flight 17, Poroshenko said, referring to the 2001 terror attacks on the United States and the bombing of a Pan Am flight over Scotland in 1988.

Obama called on Russia to rein in the rebel fighters, who he said had treated remains poorly and removed 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 US and other officials have say 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.

Dutch forensic experts and a handful of Ukrainian aviation experts worked the scene Monday, Bociurkiw said separately in a briefing for reporters hosted by the Ukrainian Crisis Media Center.

In another development, pro-Russian officials also were expected to hand over the aircraft’s black boxes Monday night, according to Sergei Kavtaradze, special representative to the self-declared rebel Prime Minister in Donetsk, Alexander Borodai.

The remains of 16 people were still missing Monday, four days after Flight 17 fell out of the sky, Poroshenko told Amanpour.

Earlier, the Ukrainian government issued a statement saying that 282 bodies and 87 “body fragments” had been recovered from the sprawling crash site.

A train carrying the remains of 251 passengers was expected to arrive in the eastern city of Kharkiv by midnight, Ukrainian officials said Monday. It will first have to pass through Donetsk, the scene of fighting earlier in the day between rebels and government forces.

Obama and Poroshenko both deplored how the bodies had been treated, echoing complaints that the remains had been left exposed to the elements for days and that rebels had stripped personal belongings from some of the bodies and their effects.

Poroshenko said the rebels’ conduct was “barbaric.” Obama called the handling of remains an “insult” that has “no place in the community of nations.”

Dutch forensics experts who inspected the train Monday were “more or less” satisfied with how the bodies were being stored,” Bociurkiw said.

Ukrainian government officials have said the bodies will eventually be taken to Amsterdam. Most of those who died in the crash were Dutch.

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.

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, and 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.

The United States has sent two FBI agents, according to a senior U.S. law enforcement source. An investigator from the National Transportation Safety Board as also in Kiev. Law enforcement officials from the Netherlands and Australia were also expected.

US and other officials have said it appears the plane was shot down by a sophisticated surface-to-air missile located within rebel-held territory. Evidence supporting that conclusion includes telephone intercepts purporting to be pro-Russian rebels discussing the shootdown and video of a Buk missile launcher traveling into Russia with at least one missile missing.

While they have stopped short of putting the responsibility squarely on Russia, Obama, British Prime Minister David Cameron and others have said the pro-Russian rebels could not have shot such a high-flying jet down without weapons and training from Russia.