International experts visit the MH17 crash site near the village of Hrabove (Grabovo) in Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine on Friday.
AFP
International experts have recovered more human remains from the flight MH17 crash site in war-torn Ukraine after resuming work on Friday, the Dutch government said.
"The 70 Dutch and Australian experts have finished their work at the MH17 crash site for today," the justice ministry said in a statement.
"All human remains that were found will be taken with them," it said.
Efforts to recover remaining bodies from the crash site have been hampered by fighting between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists.
Over 200 coffins have been sent back to the Netherlands, which lost 193 citizens in the July 17 crash, but many of the total 298 dead have yet to be recovered amid the fighting.
"We are happy that we can make sure that these remains can now be sent to the Netherlands," said Pieter-Jaap Aalbersberg, the Dutch police official sent to Ukraine to head up the mission there.
"We hope that this can bring comfort to the bereaved. It is a relief that our people are now at work."
The body recovery mission will set up a new base in Soledar, northwest of the crash site, the statement said.
The city of Kharkiv will remain the logistical base.
Fighting and rebel restrictions to the site next to the town of Grabove had prevented the investigation getting under way before now, and the conflict was still raging on Friday.
The Ukrainian military said an overnight ambush by insurgents in Shakhtarsk, a town 25 kilometres from the main impact site, left 14 people dead, including at least 10 soldiers.
The clash broke a brief lull that had reigned around the site after Ukrainian authorities ordered a ceasefire.
“In total it is known that 14 people died but the bodies of four of them have not been identified and could be Ukrainian soldiers or terrorists,” military spokesman Oleksiy Dmytrashkivsky said.
Another spokesman said 13 soldiers were injured and 11 were still missing as clashes continued.
An AFP team some 12 kilometres from the MH17 site heard the sound of tank fire and saw smoke rising from the direction of Shakhtarsk.
Both rebels and Kiev have vowed to secure a circuitous access corridor to the location traced by scouts from the international team on Thursday.
Ukraine’s army has pledged not to fight in the immediate vicinity of the insurgent-held site.