Iryna Gibert, euronews: “We link up with our correspondent in Ukraine, Maria Korenyuk, on special assignment in Kharkiv. Maria, a special train from Donetsk arrived in Kharkiv today, bringing the bodies of the Malaysian Boeing. Do you know when and where identification of the bodies will take place?”
Maria Korenyuk, euronews: “We can’t confirm statements on Internet saying that it might be done in Kharkiv, and that the victims’ loved ones might go there. However, Dutch and Ukrainian authorities tell us that the identification will happen in the Netherlands. So, tomorrow, Wednesday, that’s where the first plane carrying the bodies of the victims will go. Later, six Ukrainian experts will follow, to participate in this procedure. How long might the identification take? We don’t really know: a few days or weeks… It all depends on the condition of the bodies. But the Dutch and the Ukrainian authorities insist that the most important thing is that identification begin as fast as possible, so the experts can be sure there aren’t any bodies still out there at the site of the tragedy; it’s still not certain that all of them have been recovered. It’s also not sure that all the bodies will be sent to the Netherlands.”
Gibert: “The black boxes have been placed in the hands of the Malaysian authorities. The plane wreckage is still out there. Thanks to the debris and modern technology, it will be possible to reconstruct all the details of the missile strike, so what’s going to happen to the wreckage?”
Korenyuk: “That’s what the whole world wants to know, but unfortunately we haven’t been able to get an answer. We also don’t know where the wreckage will be examined — in Ukraine or another country. Ukrainian Vice-Prime Minister Volodymir Groysman doesn’t have an answer to that because the authorities still don’t have access to the site of the tragedy. That territory is in the separatists’ control. That’s why the Ukrainian government at the moment is waiting for the international community’s support, to get permission from those controlling the area, to get to every square centimetre of the site.”
