Int’l investigators demand access to crash site

The pressure on Russian president Vladimir Putin is growing as world leaders call on him to ensure that international investigators have full access to the Malaysia Airlines flight 17 crash site.

There are growing calls from not only international leaders, but also grieving family members of crash victims to repatriate the bodies. Right now, pro-Russian rebels have taken full control of the nearly 200 bodies recovered from the crash site. They also claim to have found the plane’s black boxes.

It’s a grieving mother’s one simple request to the Russian resident. Silene Fredriksz’s son and his girlfriend are just two of the 283 passengers who perished in the Malaysia Airlines crash on Thursday.

It’s been three days since it went down, but international investigators still only have limited access to the crash site overseen by pro-Russian rebels.

Separatist leader Alexander Borodai says rebels have recovered the plane’s black boxes as well as nearly 200 bodies from the crash site. They are being held in what is believed to be refrigerated train cars.

“We’re told there are 196 bodies but we have no way to verify where they came from. They’re going to stay here until international experts arrive and then a decision will be taken,” said Michael Bociurkiw, an OSCE monitor.

While the rebels insist they haven’t interfered with the crash investigation, Ukrainian officials say they took the bodies away from their workers by force.

Ukraine and pro-Russia rebels are accusing one another of firing a missile at the plane. Both deny shooting it down, but the U.S. secretary of state says Russia clearly had a role in the attack.

“They are interfering with the evidence in the location. They have removed we understand some airplane parts. The fact the separatists are controlling this in a way that is preventing people from getting there even as the site is tampered with makes its own statement of culpability and responsibility,” said U.S. secretary of state John Kerry.

Ukraine separatist leader Alexander Borodai says rebels will hand over the black boxes, as well as the recovered bodies to aviation officials from the United Nations once they arrive.

Meanwhile, the U.S. and the European Union are turning up the pressure on Russia to grant full access to the crash site. They’re threatening to impose tougher sanctions on the country if it doesn’t do so.