Hopes for a proper investigation into the apparent shooting down of Malaysia Airlines MH17 – or even for some dignity in death for its 298 victims – faded on Saturday as chaos took hold at the disaster site in eastern Ukraine.
A small team of monitors from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe were able to gain limited access to the site, but only under careful supervision by armed separatists. Journalists and local residents continued to roam the area of Thursday's crash, while "experts" of unknown provenance moved bodies decomposing in the baking heat from fields to the roadside and used bags to collect body parts. A spokesman for the OSCE, Michael Bociurkiw, said: "Some of the body bags are open and the damage to the corpses is very, very bad – it is very difficult to look at."
It was a horrific scene and came despite huge pressure on Moscow to force the rebels to allow proper access to the crash site, including a call from David Cameron for the EU to rethink its attitude to Russia. But as politicians and newspapers across the world lay blame for Thursday's tragedy at the door of pro-Russia separatists and Vladimir Putin personally, the Kremlin has remained defiant.
Putin has said Ukraine is to blame, and Russia's defence ministry issued a list of 10 questions for Kiev on Saturday, insinuating that it was a Ukrainian missile that downed the plane, while the self-declared prime minister of the Donetsk People's Republic, Alexander Borodai, told Russian television that the entire event had been a setup by Ukrainian authorities. "[Ukrainian president] Poroshenko promised a 'surprise' for the rebels. I think this is the surprise he was talking about – a plane full of civilians shot down," said Borodai. However, a senior Ukrainian security official claimed on Saturday that Kiev had evidence the missile was fired from separatist territory and had been fired by Russian specialists who had crossed the border with the equipment.
The Ukrainian prime minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, told a German newspaper that the missile required "very professional staff" and "could not be operated by drunken gorillas", suggesting that the separatists had outside help from Russia. When asked about the growing circumstantial evidence that the separatists shot down the jet in error, thinking it to be a Ukrainian airforce plane, Borodai said: "It's a lie and I hope it will be proved as a lie by experts, including international experts who have already arrived on our territory."
However, there were no recognisable international or even Ukrainian experts at the crash site, which was completely controlled by rebel gunmen. Ukraine's government on Saturday accused the rebels of deliberately removing the corpses from the crash site and destroying the evidence, claiming that 38 bodies had been removed to a Donetsk mortuary. Rebels on the scene refused to comment on this, but again made life difficult for OSCE observers at the site. "We have to be very careful with our movements because of all the security … We are unarmed civilians, so we are not in a position to argue with people with heavy arms," said Bociurkiw.
Interfax reported that 132 Malaysian experts, including medical workers and military officials, had arrived in Kiev on Saturday to join the investigation, but it was not clear whether they would be able to visit the site.
More than half of the victims were Dutch, but there were 10 Britons, including two Newcastle United fans on their way to a match in New Zealand and a press officer from the World Health Organisation. The four dead Britons yet to be identified were named on Saturday as John Allen, a Netherlands-based lawyer who died with his wife Sandra, and their sons Christopher, Julian and Ian; Robert Ayley, 28, a dog breeder and father of two who came from Guildford in Surrey, but lived in New Zealand; Stephen Anderson, 44, who lived in Penang in Malaysia; and Andrew Hoare, who is believed to have been travelling with several members of his family.
International pressure on Russia is growing, with Europeans considering imposing a new set of sanctions on Moscow, in line with the latest round of US sanctions for events in Ukraine, introduced on Wednesday, before the crash.
With increased economic ties to Russia, European nations have been more reluctant than Washington to impose harsh measures, but there is growing anger with the Kremlin. Downing Street said on Saturday night that David Cameron and his Dutch counterpart Mark Rutte had called for the EU to "reconsider its approach to Russia" in light of the evidence that pro-Moscow separatists brought down flight MH17. Rutte's anger increased on Saturday night following what he called a "very intense" conversation with Putin. Rutte said: "He has one last chance to show he means to help [rescuers recover the bodies]."
Referring to allegations that bodies of the passengers, including 193 of his countrymen, were being treated disrespectfully and allowed to rot at the scene, he said: "I was shocked at the pictures of utterly disrespectful behaviour at this tragic spot."
Russia's ambassador to the UK, Alexander Yakovenko, has been summoned to the Foreign Office to be told that Putin must use his influence on the separatists to ensure access to the crash site, No 10 said. In Germany, Andreas Schockenhoff, a senior ally of chancellor Angela Merkel, told the Observer: "The disaster in the Ukraine has made it clear beyond all doubt that we are not dealing with a bilateral conflict, but a serious threat to the peace all across Europe."
Schockenhoff said Russia was "not a neutral actor in the conflict" since it had armed and trained the separatists. He called on Europe to show "a united front and make any failure to cooperate very painful for Putin".
Meanwhile, the Russian foreign ministry published a list of 12 US citizens who are now banned from entry to Russia in response to the latest US sanctions. They include officials involved in the running of the Guantánamo detention facility and military personnel involved with the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal.
Fighting has continued between the Ukrainian army and separatists in east Ukraine since the crash on Thursday, with more than 20 civilians reported to have died in Luhansk on Friday. Ukrainian authorities claimed they had evidence of military equipment transferred to the area from Russia in the early hours of Saturday morning.
