MH17 search finds victims’ bodies

Tense working conditions ... Ukrainian government artillery guns stand in a field near the village of Debaltseve. Picture: AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky Source: AP

A small team of Dutch and Australian police have recovered more bodies from the MH17 crash site in Ukraine.

A FULL team of 60 international investigators — including 40 Australian Federal Police —

has begun searching for human remains after forging a treacherous path through a war zone to reach the Malaysia Airlines crash site.

Persistence is now paying off for the investigators, who paused for a minute's silence at the area known as the chicken sheds, close to the epicentre of the wreckage.

The team said they felt safe for the time being, but vollies of Grad missiles could be heard thumping in the mere distance.

"It is not landing here so it is OK," said AFP Commander Brian McDonald.

"We've got a job to do."

Beginning in earnest ... Operationmg Bring Them Home commences. Picture: Paul Toohey Source: News Corp Australia

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By the end of the day the Dutch Ministry of Security confirmed remains had been found.

"We can pleased that we can ensure these remains are now transported to the Netherlands," it said in a statement. "We hope this will be a consolation for the bereaved."

Operation Bring Them Home has begun, though Commander McDonald — who describes the whole area as a crime scene — did not want to put a time on how long the work will take.

There is wreckage strewn across eight kilometres and there are no assurances that the site, which is now a major battlefront, is safe.

"There's a lot of grief attached to this place," said the Dutch Tactical Commander, Kees Kuijs, shortly after arriving on the mission to salvage human remains and take them back to their families.

He called the place where 298 people died after MH17 was almost certainly hit with a surface-to-air missile a "field of remembrance".

The team arrived at the disaster scene with prepared search grid patterns and AFP officers headed almost straight onto the site looking for any remains of the 80 people who are still unaccounted for.

On their way ... Dutch and Malaysian police prepare to leave Donetsk on Friday morning. Picture: Paul Toohey Source: Supplied

Negotiators from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) were at the head of the convoy followed by the Australians in a large red highly-visible bus.

To get to the site the team needed to take a circuitous route through tense rebel checkpoints and enter Ukrainian ground where soldiers are amassed with tanks and cannons, and again back to the rebel-held crash site.

Along the way is an abandoned bus with its hazard lights still flashing and emblazoned with a sign saying "children".

Fields are burning and villages hanging rank with smoke.

Commander McDonald said the security situation would need to be assessed each morning before heading to the site, as they try to win guarantees from the warring Ukrainian army and rebels that the recovery workers would not be fired upon.

So far, there has been no attempt to stop the convoy but they are in the middle of Europe's first war in 15 years.

Convoy of courage ... the AFP investigators leave Donesk. Picture: Paul Toohey Source: News Corp Australia

Asked if he felt they could secure the site and achieve their aims of gathering up to 80 bodies that are still scattered across the site, Commander McDonald said: "Yes I do. Yes I do"

The teams will use all available forensic techniques, which include satellite observation, drones, sniffer dogs, and their eyes to seek out remains.

The AFP officers were granted permission by the Ukraine parliament to carry arms in the country, but Commander McDonald said he wanted them to be seen as a contingency and all efforts would be made not to have them on display at any time.

The only weapons visible at the site were in the hands of the rebels who are fighting to create an independent republic free of the Ukraine.

"We need to understand we are in a conflict area," said Commander McDonald.

"It is really important to note that while I am here in a police uniform, this is a humanitarian undertaking. This is about the recovery of human remains and trying to give some closure to those poor people who lost people through this really tragic event."

The crash site is only 85 kilometres from Donetsk where the foreign team are based but they took the painstaking journey of 200 kilometres to avoid the open warfare.

Tactical leader Kuijs said if they were not confident of their safety in coming days they would not come to the site.

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