DONETSK, Ukraine - It took nearly five days and hours of negotiations late into the night, but Russia-backed rebels ceded some ground and turned over the flight recorder devices from Malaysia Airlines flight 17, shot down by a surface-to-air rocket last week, to Malaysian officials.
They also promised to release the bodies recovered from the crash site some 40 miles east in the village of Grabove, which were inside refrigerated railcars at the Donetsk train station but would soon be on their way to the Ukrainian-controlled eastern city of Kharkiv, and declared a ceasefire within a six-mile radius around the crash site to allow international investigators safe access to the area.
Donning his favorite blue blazer and flanked by gunmen, Alexander Borodai, the self-proclaimed prime minister the Donetsk People’s Republic, called July 22, “an important day in the history of the Donetsk People’s Republic,” as two camouflage-clad rebel ceremoniously removed two of the so-called black boxes from a white sack and placed them on the table inside the 11th-floor conference room of the rebel-occupied Donetsk regional administration.
Addressing reporters, Borodai deflected the blame for shooting down the jetliner and accused Kyiv of downing the plane, despite the mounting evidence provided by the government and the West that shows it was likely shot out of the sky using a Buk rocket system operated by fighters under his command. He said Kyiv had “both the technical ability and the motive” to shoot it down.
Kyiv isn’t interested in an independent and objective investigation and has attempted to ward off international experts seeking access to the jetliner’s crash site, Borodai said. Ukraine and the West have charged the rebels with obstructing the international investigation into the incident and said that the site had been compromised.
As part of the deal brokered by Borodai and a Malaysia delegation that included at least one member of the country’s national security council, Malaysia must in turn hand over the black boxes to aviation experts favored by Russia to examine them.
But that didn’t seem to deter the seemingly perplexed Malaysia delegation, whose leader Colonel Mohamed Sakri said after more than 12 hours of negotiations that his country “would like to convey our sincere appreciation to His Excellency Mr. Borodai for obeying our request [to hand over the recorders].”
“We show to the people of Malaysia that we are so serious to make these things be recovered from Malaysia,” Sakri added.
As part of the deal, control of the remains of 282 bodies and 67 body parts recovered from the crash site and currently on ice in temperature-controlled railcars at the Donetsk station will be transferred to Malaysia, and then taken to Kharkov before flying to Amsterdam, Borodai said, adding that “experts” would accompany them.
The ceremony had all the pomp of an official event, ending with bright blue Donesk People’s Republic stamps placed on documents signed by the two sides, and a handshake photo opportunity.
Sakri said he hoped his delegation would be able to leave with the black boxes and bodies “immediately.”
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Project, managed by Internews and funded by the United States Agency for
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