The United States turned up the heat on Russia yesterday over its support of Ukrainian separatists it accuses of shooting down a Malaysian passenger plane.

“This is the moment of truth for Russia,” Secretary of State John Kerry said.

“Russia is supporting these separatists … and Russia has not yet done the things necessary in order to try to bring them under control.”
He said he was hopeful that the tragedy would galvanise support for increasing sanctions.

However, he struck a rather different note when he claimed on the NBC Meet the Press show: “We are not drawing the final conclusion here.”

Either way, Mr Kerry made it painfully clear that the tragedy of the deaths of 298 innocent people in a bitterly contested warzone meant little more to the US than a convenient propaganda opportunity.

As rebels worked to recover the bodies from flight 17 and load them on refrigerated rail cars, US and European leaders appeared to be intent on conducting a distasteful tug-of-war over who controlled the collection of evidence.

Ukraine and the separatists accuse each other of firing a missile at Malaysia Airlines flight 17 as it flew above the battlefields of eastern Ukraine. Both deny shooting down the plane.

Donetsk rebel leader Alexander Borodai said the bodies would remain in refrigerated train cars in the rebel-held town of Torez until the arrival of an international aviation delegation.

He also said the plane’s black boxes had been recovered and would be handed over to the International Civil Aviation Organisation.

Borodai insisted that rebels had not interfered with the crash investigation.