REPORTER: Mark Davis

WOMAN (Translation):  We are feeling grief, we all are, all of Ukraine is feeling grief.  We are grieving over them like over our own children, because they are innocent children.

It's been a trauma for all involved. Who killed the innocents on board MH17 is still disputed. The main suspects are pro-Russian rebels firing a surface-to-air missile from their strong hold in and around the crash site in eastern Ukraine.

WOMAN:   Beautiful boy, we miss you very much..

29-year-old Victor Oreshkin called Australia home. He was one of 37 Australian citizens or residents killed including the unbearably sad deaths of young children like the three Maslin kids from Perth. The pro-Russian separatist of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic may be innocent of firing the rocket, or if they did, they may not have known the target was a civilian aircraft. But they indisputably stand condemned of preventing the retrieval of innocent bodies in the field for days.

RUSSIAN SEPARATIST (Translation):  You are going out of here. That's an order!

An agonising stalemate developed immediately after the crash. Hopes the victims could be laid to rest quickly soon faded. After months of a bitter Civil War, the Government in Kiev had its own troubles stepping down from its battle mindset to allow the bodies to be recovered.

PAVLO KLIMKIN, UKRAINE FOREIGN MINISTER:  I'm not carrying out any negotiations with terrorists.

The Foreign Minister and his team, key players in trying to resolve the crisis, work around the clock. But the Ukrainian Government has stop short of agreeing to a comprehensive ceasefire.

MARK DAVIS:  The separatists say that they would have let you in if you had a ceasefire, they say you won't do the ceasefire, is that correct?

PAVLO KLIMKIN:  We said from the very beginning we were ready to set up ceasefire from the very beginning. The point is that this site is under control of the terrorists.

Disgracefully by the end of the weekend, there were still bodies lying around the crash site. Possessions of the dead were reportedly being looted. Allegations too that key evidence was being removed.

OLEKSIY (Translation):  OK. We found one piece of crap. It's a box, a satellite navigation block. That is what is written on it.

KHODAAKOVSKYI (Translation):   Fucking hide it anyway. Who the fuck knows what they can be disguised as.

We tracked down the spokesperson for the separatists to ask why the bodies were still not being moved. But it seems Sunday is a true day of rest in the People's Republic of Donetsk.

SEPARATIST SPOKESMAN (Translation):  It's a weekend and you don't work even in such a tense situation...

WOMAN (Translation):  But it's impossible.... We do not work! We are human and we also need some rest.

MARK DAVIS:  Do you know this is looking very bad for your movement. The whole world is watching and while there are bodies rotting in a field, and the world wants to know where are those bodies, how are they being treated and when they're coming back. Say that.

SEPARATIST SPOKESMAN (Translation):  But the world is seeing the pictures where bodies are rotting in the fields and no one has any idea what is going on with them.

WOMAN (Translation):  I am not authorised to speak.

By the end of the weekend, there was finally a breakthrough of sorts.

MARK DAVIS:  What's your best prediction of when the bodies will be delivered?

MINISTER (Translation):  We have a train at the station fully loaded and sealed but it is not moving because it is forbidden to. It is surrounded by militants who won't allow it to proceed.

The train carrying the recovered bodies has now departed. The past 24 hours full of agonising false starts as more fighting broke out in the area surrounding the train. The innocent victims still pawns in this on-going war game.

INTERVIEW: 

Reports are, that the train has now arrived in the Government-controlled area of Kharkiv after an eight-hour delay following fresh outbreaks of shelling between Government and rebel forces. Mark Davis spoke with Ukraine's Prime Minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, just as the train was reading to leave the rebel areas.

MARK DAVIS:  Well, thanks for your time, sir, we greatly appreciate it. Why have the separatists been so belligerent. In your opinion, is there a strategy at work here?

ARSENIY YATSENYUK, PRIME MINISTER UKRAINE:  Let me start with the words of my deepest condolences to your nation. To your people, and we stand by Australian people, Ukrainians mourn and pray for all families who lost their beloved in this despicable act of violence. We launched an investigation and the question you raised frankly has no answer. I will try to answer it.

MARK DAVIS:  Because the violence was one thing, but the extra trauma has been these days and days of bodies - people's families in the field.

ARSENIY YATSENYUK:  They are just bastards, you can't name these beings as human beings.

MARK DAVIS:  You'll be critical of Russia in the lead-up to this, but in the post crash period, could Russia have done more to allow the same thing, did they have any influence here?

ARSENIY YATSENYUK:  Russia did nothing. To allow rescue units and rescue teams to get to the crash site, to stop looting, that these guerrillas did in the last few days. That's awful. That's disgusting and awful. I was shocked with this footage.

MARK DAVIS:  The Russians of course have blamed you for escalating the tensions, in fact escalating the fighting that led to the - the crash itself. Is that an accurate description?

ARSENIY YATSENYUK:  The fact is that Russia supplied lethal weapon to Russian led terrorists. The fact is that MH17 was downed or shoot down by the antiaircraft missile system, surface-to-air. The fact is that these antiaircraft missile system is Russian-made. The fact is that only well-trained agents can operate this system. This is an international crime. This is the global threat and we are to bring to justice everyone responsible, including those who are and were behind the scene. Those who supplied the weapons and those who trained these Russian led guerrillas and this is Russian Federation.

MARK DAVIS:  What happens next? Is there likely to be an escalation of hostilities here?

ARSENIY YATSENYUK:  This is the key priority for the entire globe - to stop this, to stop Russian invasion and to contain Russia. Because you know what happens - MH17 is just the end of the story, but how it started? It started with the annexation of Crimea with the grab of land of an independent country, with the violation of international law, with the violation of the UN charter by P5 member. We send in troops and agents to Ukraine and territory with the supplying of weapon, with the conquering and invading of independent country and with an idea of restoring the Soviet Union launched by President Putin. As far I see, this is his final goal. This is his ultimate goal - to recreate the dark empire. This is the global job and the duty of everyone in this world.

MARK DAVIS:  The international community has been very supportive of Ukraine over the past week, certainly with their statements and their words. Do you think that level of interest will remain when this media crisis is over?

ARSENIY YATSENYUK:   Well, we have to be frank. The world have a number of things that needs to be resolved and fixed. Syria, Middle East, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Ukraine. Who is to be on the top priority list - it depends on the situation, but what we do understand that Ukrainian case or Ukrainian-Russia tension is one of the key threats to the global security. And we need to act in concert - the entire global community, to de-escalate the situation and to bring to justice those responsible for this escalation.

MARK DAVIS:  Finally - what's your - what do you anticipate? What do you think will happen next? What's the mood here amongst your Government about what will happen next month?

ARSENIY YATSENYUK:   My Government will do everything for peace, for peace and stability.

MARK DAVIS:  It doesn't feel like what I hear, doesn't feel like the mood here. There seems to be a lot of anger, there was a lot of trauma when the plane came down, now there seems a lot of anger. Do you think there's going to be peace and stability, or do you think there is going to be more assaults.

ARSENIY YATSENYUK:   But to get peace, you have to fight, this is the formula.

MARK DAVIS:  On that ominous note, thanks for your time.

ARSENIY YATSENYUK:   Thank you, sir.

And it seems the Prime Minister's mood is completely backed by the Government here. Just a few hours ago, the Parliament called for an additional call-up of 40,000 soldiers. They have declared Russia support of the rebels in the east of the country to be a formal act of aggression and have asked for international assistance.

Reporter/Camera
Mark Davis

Producer
Meggie Palmer

Researcher
Calliste Weitenberg

Editor
Micah McGown

Translations/Subtitling
Elena Mikhailik