Kuala Lumpur : Sixty eight Malaysian police officers left Wednesday night for Kiev to secure the crash site of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 and help experts carry out their assessment.
“We will be assisting the 12-strong forensic personnel who are currently in Kharkiv identifying the victims,” Xinhua quoted Malaysia’s Inspector General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar as saying at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
He said the officers would be briefed on safety measures and would be equipped with ballistic helmets and bulletproof vests for their mission.
“We have been following the developments and we are aware of ongoing efforts to prevent rebels from taking over the crash site,” he said, adding that “it is crucial the site is safe before we send our personnel in.”
Malaysia had reached an agreement with Ukrainian rebels, who control the area around the MH17 crash site, to allow a group of international police personnel to enter the area to protect the international investigators, according to a government statement issued July 27.
Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said that his country will do its best to help end the bloodshed in Ukraine and investigate the MH17 incident.
“We have found common ground that there is an urgent need to end the bloodshed and immediately launch a negotiating process to find a solution acceptable for all sides,” Lavrov told reporters in Tajikistan capital Dushanbe, where he held bilateral talks with his Tajik counterpart Sirojiddin Aslov.
He also pledged that Russia will help execute UN Security Council Resolution 2166 which envisaged a thorough and independent international investigation into the July 17 crash of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17.
All 298 people aboard the ill-fated flight were killed in the tragedy which has shocked the world amid suspicions that the Boeing 777 jetliner was shot down.