A serviceman of volunteer battalions of territorial defence Lugansk-1 checks passing cars at their checkpoint near the eastern Ukrainian city of Lisichansk
AFP
The EU was set to approve punishing sanctions against Russia Tuesday over its role in the Ukraine crisis, as fighting in the strife-torn east again prevented international experts from reaching the crash site of Malaysian flight MH17.
For the third day running, an unarmed team of Dutch and Australian police ditched plans to travel to the scene of the disaster as "there is currently too much fighting on and around the road to the crash site," said the Dutch justice ministry.
The Ukrainian military confirmed early Tuesday that violence was still raging.
"Pockets of insurgents are continuing to fire on Ukrainian positions from the towns of Snizhne, Torez and Shakhtarsk," said the military, referring to towns all located within about 30 kilometres (18 miles) of the site.
The fresh conflict came a day after rebels admitted Kiev had regained control over part of the vast site, where the remains of some of the 298 victims from the MH17 crash still lie 12 days after the disaster.
Kiev would not confirm the rebels' claim, saying only that its troops had entered a string of towns around the scene.
"Things are fluid at the moment. Someone who has control of it now may not have control in a few hours," said Michael Bociurkiw, a spokesman for monitors from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in rebel-held Donetsk about 60 kilometres (35 miles) away from the site.
Bociurkiw also blasted as "absolutely unconscionable" that the remains of the victims still lie out in the open.
Dutch authorities leading the probe feared the remains of some of the 298 victims may never be recovered.
"I believe the chances are not very good" of recovering the corpses, Dutch police chief Gerard Bouman told parliament in The Hague.
Data from the doomed plane's black boxes showed the crash was caused by shrapnel from a rocket explosion, Kiev said Monday.
The information from the flight recorders was decrypted in Britain after pro-Russian rebels handed them to Malaysian officials.
