Donetsk, Jul 17 – DAN. DPR Head Denis Pushilin has extended his condolences over the MH-17 crash to the families of the victims on the anniversary of the tragedy.
"The investigation has been going on for six years, unfortunately it is politically motivated and tampers (with evidence) to prove the version voiced in the first two hours after the incident," he said attending the memorial installed at the crash site.
People brought flowers, toys and lit candles at the memorial stone decorated with 10 state flags of the victims' countries.
"I was at home doing the housework, when heard a loud explosion. I was scared, at first we were scared to go out, and when braced ourselves then saw the debris next to our yard and all over the place, there were wreckage and shards. It turned out to be the remnants of baggage compartment. A lot of bodies were found in a neighboring village, Grabovo. Only afterwards we learnt it was a passenger plane," one of the witnesses Marina Pustovik told journalists.
The locals took on the task to search bodies and aircraft fragments.
Pustovik said that occasionally she stills finds some staff from the aircraft in her yard.
"Either a knife or a fork. It's unsettling, scary. It's a tremendous tragedy, I feel the huge pain of those people who lost their relatives here," she said.
Earlier DPR Foreign Minister Natalia Nikonorova dismissed as false the statement of Dutch royal land forces commander Martin Wijnen who claimed that DPR had not helped international experts to retrieve plane fragments and bodies of victims.
On July 17, 2014 Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17) was hit by a surface-to-air missile at cruising altitude. Russia was immediately blamed for the catastrophe even before first investigators reached the scene. Moscow has been denying charges as subsequent investigation revealed that the missile had been launched from the Kiev-controlled territory. *ot*pp