[July 23, 2014]KHARKIV Ukraine (Reuters) - A Dutch
air force transport plane carrying the first 16 coffins with the remains
of victims of the downed Malaysian airliner took off on Wednesday from
an airport in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv for the Netherlands.
Honorary guards placed wooden coffins on the plane after a short
and somber ceremony held on the tarmac before it took off.
All 298 people on board the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 perished
when it was brought down last Thursday over rebel-held territory in
eastern Ukraine, where Kiev is struggling to quell a pro-Russian
separatist rebellion.
Many of the victims were Dutch and the Netherlands will carry out
their identification.
At the ceremony, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman
said the downing of the plane was an "inhumane terrorist act"
carried out with help from Russia.
Kiev will do everything in its power to bring those guilty to
justice, he added.
A Canadian military transport plane is due to leave Kharkiv with 24
more coffins later on Wednesday.
Russia has blamed Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko for the crash
because he refused to extend a ceasefire with the separatist
fighters. Moscow denies supporting the separatists.
U.S. intelligence officials said on Tuesday Washington believed
pro-Russian separatists probably shot the plane down "by mistake,"
not realizing it was a civilian passenger flight.
(Reporting by Sergei Karazy,; Writing by Gabriela Baczynska,;
Editing by Elizabeth Piper)
