Remains of MH17 pilots to return home

Trade Minister Andrew Robb has allayed fears deteriorating relations with Russia could affect efforts to recover the remains of Australians killed in the MH17 disaster in Ukraine.

Mr Robb on Tuesday said he believed the mission to recover the remains of 38 Australian citizens and residents, killed when the Malaysia Airlines plane was shot down over eastern Ukraine in July, had been completed.

The comments came as Malaysian authorities confirmed the remains of the pilots of MH17 were set to arrive back in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday.

Mr Robb, speaking on ABC radio, played down suggestions the threat of further sanctions against Russia over its involvement in the Ukraine conflict cold thwart efforts to access the crash site.

"They feel they have recovered all of the human remains that could be recovered," Mr Robb said.

"The process at the moment is to obviously as quickly as possible identify the remains that they have been able to get from the crash site."

In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said the remains of Captain Wan Amran Wan Hussin and Captain Eugene Choo Jin Leong, who were at the controls of MH17 when it was shot down on July 17, would be honoured in a ceremony on Wednesday.

The remains of co-pilot First Officer Muhd Firdaus Abdul Rahim and flight steward Sanjid Singh Sandhu, as well as Dutch citizen Paul Goes, his Malaysian wife Subashini Jayaretnam and their 21-month-old daughter Kaela Maya Jay, were also set to be returned.

The Malaysia Airlines plane was shot down by Russian-backed rebels over Ukraine in July, killing all 298 people on board.