KIEV, July 31. /ITAR-TASS/. Ukrainian army has suspended advance in the Malaysian jet crash area to enable work of international experts, the press office said on Thursday.

The announcement followed the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon demand. The army will not be engaged in military actions on July 31 except protecting its own positions from attacks.

Malaysia Airlines Boeing-777 heading from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed in the Donetsk Region in eastern Ukraine on July 17 killing all 298 aboard. The overwhelming majority, 195 passengers, were Dutch citizens. The tragedy also claimed lives of 44 Malaysians.

Unhampered access to the site for international forensic medical examiners and investigators has been an urgent issue recently. Fierce fighting in the area prevented a Dutch group of 20 experts and 40 unarmed servicemen in plain clothes as well as Australian experts from leaving Donetsk for four days. Their main task is to look for the remains and send them to the Netherlands for identification.

A group of Malaysian experts are now in Kharkiv, the major city in eastern Ukraine. Sixty-eight policemen left Kuala Lumpur for Ukraine on Wednesday to guard the wreckage.