Search operations have ended at the site of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crash in Donetsk region, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman said here Monday.
"(A total of) 282 bodies and 87 fragments that belonged to 16 other bodies of the innocent victims were found at the site," Groysman told reporters during a media conference.
He said the bodies and remains of the victims have been placed inside refrigerated cars and will be taken to the eastern city of Kharkov later in the day for examination, Xinhua reported.
Groysman added that insurgents in Donetsk region, who allegedly have seized the black boxes of the plane, agreed to transfer the flight data recorders to experts from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
Earlier in the day, a team of 31 international experts arrived in Kharkov to help with the investigation of the incident.
Flight MH17, while flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, crashed Thursday afternoon in the conflict-hit Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine killing all 283 passengers and 15 crew on board.
According to reports, the indications are that the Boeing 777 crashed after being hit by a missile. US President Barack Obama said that initial investigations showed that the missile was fired from an area in Ukraine controlled by anti-Kiev militants.
