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More wreckage and remains found at MH17 crash site

Investigators have discovered more human remains and a new section of the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, more than a week after the plane was shot down over eastern Ukraine.

It is understood the location of the bodies has been marked with a white flag, but investigators do not have the facilities available to handle human remains.


Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) spokesman Michael Bociurkiw confirmed that they had found more human remains, ABC reports.

“We saw remains yesterday and we saw one spot of remains today,” he said.

Mr Bociurkiw said the large, previously undiscovered section of fuselage with windows and seats still attached was an ‘extraordinary finding’.

It is the largest intact piece of fuselage found after the crash, located in a wooded area more than a kilometre away from the main crash site.

A pro-Russian rebel touches the MH17 wreckage at the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, near the village of Hrabove, eastern Ukraine. Photo: AP.
A pro-Russian rebel touches the MH17 wreckage at the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, near the village of Hrabove, eastern Ukraine. Photo: AP.

Independent monitors helping Canberra negotiate with armed rebels over access to the MH17 crash site say Australians are already on the ground "sussing the security situation".

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop hopes the fact the Netherlands is now officially in charge of the investigation will allow the site near the Russian border to be secured within days.

Australian officials are relying on the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe's (OSCE) monitoring mission in Ukraine to act as an intermediary with rebels, who control the region where Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was downed a week ago.

OSCE spokesman Michael Bociurkiw has confirmed two Australian diplomats and one forensic expert visited the site on Thursday with his team.

It's believed the forensic expert was from the Australian Federal Police.

"It looks like they're sussing the security situation and then possibly coming here," Mr Bociurkiw told the AFP news agency.

"The Australians are getting a sense of the security for the area, they're mapping it, they're getting a sense of where the crash sites are."

Mr Bociurkiw said two or three more Australian officials were expected to join the inspection team on Friday.

Some 50 federal police officers are in London awaiting approval for an international team to work at the crash site under the aegis of the UN.

Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans signed a memorandum of understanding with his Ukrainian counterpart Pavlo Klimkin on Thursday which officially put the Netherlands in charge of the investigation.

Ms Bishop thinks that's the key to getting Russian-backed rebels to allow the international community in.

"I am very optimistic after today's meetings that we will have in place the legal and operational framework that will enable our mission to be carried out as soon as possible," she told reporters in Kiev.

"We're not talking about weeks we are talking about days. Now that Ukraine has transferred legal responsibility to the Netherlands we feel that we'll get more progress with the separatists."

Human remains are still being found at the crash site. They aren't being removed but rather flagged for collection at a later date.

Emergency workers remove human remains from the grim site of the MH17 crash. Photo: AP.
Emergency workers remove human remains from the grim site of the MH17 crash. Photo: AP.

Ms Bishop will travel to Kharkiv on Friday to see the last of the bodies that were trained out of Torez this week flown to the Netherlands for identification.

The final flight is expected to depart Ukraine's second-biggest city around midday local time (7pm AEST).

Thursday's MH17 negotiations were conducted on a day of political upheaval in Ukraine.

Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk resigned in a shock move after the collapse of the ruling parliamentary coalition paved the way for new legislative elections.