Ukraine accuses Russian-backed insurgents of blocking access to MH17 crash site

Ukraine's government released a statement this morning accusing Russian-backed insurgents of blocking access to and tampering with evidence at the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crash site, The New York Times reports.

Ukrainian officials had planned to take the bodies of the 298 victims to a laboratory in Kharkiv, but they say that 38 bodies have instead been taken by insurgents to a morgue in Donetsk, an area controlled by the country's rebel faction.

"At present, we have limited information and limited ability to obtain formal information," Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for Ukraine's Defense and Security Council, said. "The people who are working from our side, they do not have the ability of free movement. They are under control of the terrorists. They are guarding the place. They are taking out all the evidence."

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