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DPR authorities to help transport MH17 plane wreckage to Kharkiv

A Malaysia Airlines plane was en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it crashed over eastern Ukraine on July 17

DONETSK, November 6 /TASS/. The leadership of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) has reached a preliminary agreement with the Netherlands to transport the wreckage of the Malaysia Airlines Boeing that crashed near Donetsk on July 17 to Kharkiv. The OSCE is going to act as mediator, a DPR official told TASS on Thursday.

A Malaysia Airlines plane was en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it crashed over eastern Ukraine on July 17. All the 298 passengers onboard, including 193 Dutch nationals, died in the crash.

“Today, we have held talks involving the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Dutch experts and representatives of the Emergencies Ministry, the Interior Ministry and the Transport Ministry of the Donetsk People’s Republic. A preliminary agreement was reached to take the debris out on November 7,” Ella Karakut, a spokesperson for the DPR’s Transport Ministry, said adding the republic’s Interior Ministry would ensure the cargo’s safe transportation. The Emergencies Ministry will clear the territory where the plane fragments are lying from mines while the Transport Ministry will provide five railroad cars.

“The Dutch will do the loading. The OSCE acting as intermediary will accompany the cargo to the final destination. We, for our part, have taken a commitment to deliver the debris to Kharkiv,” Karakut said.

Dutch investigators and OSCE monitors arrived at the crash site earlier on Thursday. They were accompanied by rescuers from the Emergencies Ministry of the Donetsk People’s Republic. They inspected the debris and packed some things found at the crash site in special black plastic bags. In addition to that, the Dutch experts put up warning signs around the perimeter of places of major concentration of plane fragments.

The experts, investigators and DPR rescuers refused to give any comments to journalists.