Ukraine fighting blocks international team access to MH17 crash site

Fighting around the site of the Malaysian airliner downed in Ukraine prevented a visit by international experts yesterday, although Malaysia said separatists had agreed to allow international police and investigators into the area.

Alexander Hug, deputy head for the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE) monitoring mission in Ukraine, said: "We heard indications there's fighting going on.

"The situation on the ground appears to be unsafe ... we therefore decided to deploy tomorrow morning."

The eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk are gripped by heavy fighting as Ukrainian government forces try to dislodge pro-Russian separatists from the site where Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down earlier this month. "Fighting in the area will most likely affect [the] crash site," Hug said.

Ukraine's National Security Council said government troops had encircled Horlivka, a key rebel stronghold, and that there had been fighting in other cities in the east. Horlivka is about 30km north of the main rebel-held city of Donetsk.

The armed forces "have increased assaults on territory held by pro-Russian mercenaries, destroyed checkpoints and positions and moved very close to Horlivka", the council said.

Local media reported fighting in the towns of Snizhne and Torez, the two nearest mid-sized towns to the crash site.