REPORTER: Nick Lazaredes

We are at the edge of the MH17 crash site. Pinned down by someone I can't see, and wondering how to escape.

REPORTER:   OK, there has been some shooting. We're just laying low at the moment. There's firing going on all around us. We need to get out of here.

Our journey had started three days earlier, in far less hazardous circumstances. We leave early for the drive into the rebel stronghold of Donetsk.

REPORTER:   Pleased to meet you.

OLE SOLVANG, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH:   Pleased to meet you as well.

REPORTER:   Where are you from?

OLE SOLVANG:   I'm from Norway. I work for Human Rights Watch.

REPORTER:   Great, OK.

OLE SOLVANG:   How about yourself?

REPORTER:   I'm from Australian television, SBS.

OLE SOLVANG:   Oh, OK.

REPORTER:   Yeah.

It's not long before we're out of the city of Dnipropetrovsk, and, it seems, out of luck with the van. It's the last thing you want as you approach a war zone. The driver doubles as a good mechanic, and eventually we are under way again.

So we've just passed through the last Ukrainian military checkpoint, just a few kilometres back. We're now about 35-40km to the south-west of Donetsk, and we're about to come across the first separatist checkpoint. So we'll need to finish this filming up now, because we can't be filming anywhere near them as we go through, or we'll be hauled out of the car and taken in for questioning. So hopefully we'll be in Donetsk in the next 35-40 minutes.

We get through the separatist checkpoint and keep heading east. Ole Solvang, from Human Rights Watch, is a good contact. He has been monitoring the contact since it began, based in Donetsk.

OLE SOLVANG:  I just came there - came out of there two days ago. But the situation is growing increasingly tense, and we see more and more violations, more and more use of incriminate weapons, so we need to get back there and document that.

REPORTER:   What did you see happen immediately in the days after the crash?

OLE SOLVANG:  Well, we had been hoping that the plane crash would lead to some sort of, perhaps, pause in the fighting. But we didn't see that. You know, it was almost the opposite.

Driving into Donetsk is a strange experience. It seems peaceful, but, two months ago, I was here as the region descended into chaos. Even a few weeks back, no-one imagined that this ugly, localised conflict could have such a global impact. But the downing of MH17 left nations in mourning - and thrust Australia into the heart of a violent and unpredictable war.

You soon see the rebel presence here. They say they'll fight to the death to hold this city - and that crucial battle may not be far off. The government is already on the offensive, re-taking towns and villages.

DRIVER (Translation):  I'm not sure about the exact route, but using this main road...

The next day, we've swapped the van for a car. There's a lot of travelling ahead through dangerous territory. But first, I've heard that I will find people here, fleeing the fighting that's going on in towns and villages outside the city.

So this is Donetsk central railway station. As you can see, there are a lot of people milling about, already trying to get a train out of here. There are only about a dozen trains out of here in the next 24 hours and, unfortunately, all the tickets have been sold.

WOMAN (Translation):  We have spent four days stuck in a basement, day and night. There has been too much shelling, it was just horrible. I don't think staying here makes any sense at all. You can hear explosions from here. It is very, very scary.

Behind the railway station was an incident we couldn't film - and a reminder of how things can turn nasty very quickly, when a militant demanded our crew's passports.

ANDRIY IGNATOV, CREW:  He got very angry, and ordered us to go to the cellar, to their prison, and after we refused he said to get out of there, you know, "You filthy Ukrainians, get out of here as soon as possible" and he threatened us to - you know, to shoot at us if he finds us again. And he said, his memory is very good.

Just down the road, we find more evidence of the conflict. So we're about a kilometre from downtown Donetsk and as you can see behind me a building has been hit by a missile. This was a missile attack that took place yesterday, we believe by the Ukrainian military. Just up behind me here, the missile has hit a residential building and unfortunately one man was killed. It is an example of the indiscriminate shelling that has been taking place in and around Donetsk.

In this city under siege, there's violence at every turn. Ole Solvang, from Human Rights Watch, is investigating another incident.

REPORTER:   Somebody died on this spot last night?

OLE SOLVANG: It was actually this morning. One person was killed and three people were injured. So we're going to see if we can find any evidence of what happened to them. This looks like shrapnel from an artillery shell. Much more likely seems to be that an artillery shell fell here and then the shrapnel hit the bus that was driving by on the road. It seems quite random, where these artillery shells land.

REPORTER:   So, with the shrapnel, can you determine where it came from? Or who was responsible?

OLE SOLVANG:  Not by the shrapnel itself. The problem here in this conflict is that both sides use the same kind of weapons. There is, you know, an initial presumption, perhaps, that it is the Ukrainian army that is firing into separatist-controlled areas.

At a nearby hospital, Ole tracks down the survivors.

OLE SOLVANG:  So the doctor said it was OK?

MAN:  Yeah, yeah, we've got the permission.

SURVIVOR (Translation):  It hit us, pushed me to my knees. It was a split second, near the mine. It was just one bang, one second and it was over. Blood ran like a stream, I had to throw my pants away.

REPORTER:   What did you learn in there?

OLE SOLVANG:   I think it confirmed what we already kind of knew from the scene. No military vehicles - nothing. No checkpoints nearby, any reason why there should be an attack there. So this looks very much like an unlawful attack that killed one civilian and injured four people.

After the hospital visits, my translator and I sit down to plan a visit to the crash site. It's easier said than done. There's heavy fighting. We check with the mayor of Petropavlovskaya. She is trapped in the middle of the conflict.

ANDRIY IGNATOV (Translation):  If we come over right now to the plane crash site will we be able to approach it? Or is it too dangerous? They say the site is mined.

NATALIYA, MAYOR (Translation):  It's getting here that is dangerous.

ANDRIY IGNATOV (Translation):  Getting there?

Nataliya, the mayor, has a remarkable story to tell. Her townspeople have been stockpiling material from the crash site.

NATALIYA (Translation):  In the village we have lots of plane debris and passengers' personal belongings, bags, suitcases and backpacks, so all the belongings that people brought in and are still bringing in since the Emergency Control Ministry left are still in the building of our village council. You know, the fear, the panic and the great pain for the people who died have now been replaced with fear and panic for our own lives and for our children.

We're determined to visit Nataliya and see the material they've collected. So we're on our way to the crash site. We left Donetsk about 40 minutes ago and we've only had one checkpoint where they've actually stopped and checked our documents. The fact that we're Australian seemed to get their attention and they were quite polite, told us to be very careful. There's supposed to be an exclusion zone around the crash site, but we can hear the unmistakable rumble of artillery fire in the distance. The shelling is causing fires.

DRIVER (Translation): What's up?

MAN (Translation):  Stop. There is fighting.

DRIVER (Translation):  Bad shit?

MAN (Translation):  They told us to turn around. They fucking jumped at us with their machine guns ready.

Channel Nine has just been stopped down the road there by what they described as a crazy gunman so we're not going to go any further down there. You can see in the field there's wreckage from the plane crash here. But we've got to go. It's far too dangerous at this point to proceed. Let's go. As we drive further there are more fires. This road seems OK, and Nataliya's village is not far. But now, there's a problem.

REPORTER:   OK, so we're just coming up to a - it looks like a fallen tree or something, we don't know. It's blocking the road, so we don't think we can go any further. I get out to take a look - it seems like a trap. And it is. OK, there has been some shooting. We are just laying low at the moment.

DRIVER (Translation):  Don't shoot. We are a TV crew! ATV crew!  I say we move fucking carefully to the car and get out of here.  Don't shoot!  Well, shall we go?

REPORTER:   There's firing going on all around us. We need to get out of here. Alright, so we just keep going. We're keeping our heads down. The driver has taken his shirt off. He is waving it outside the car. OK, so we're going to head back. We've just been right on the periphery of the town of Petropavlovka. But clearly there's too much fighting going on. This is right in the crash zone of MH17. We're going pretty fast, and hopefully within a few kilometres we'll be outside of the danger zone.

We're still shaken by the ambush when we run into this - a separatist checkpoint. With the rebels blamed for the downing of MH17, it's a chance to get their view of what happened. Their commander's codename is Bear.

BEAR (Translation):  Judging by the way the Ukrainians are approaching the issue, we are firmly convinced the whole thing was caused by the Ukrainian Army.

Bear is no fool - he knows the Ukrainian army is closing in on his position. But he doesn't seem concerned.

REPORTER (Translation):  What do you think will happen next?

BEAR (Translation):  Next? We will crush them like cockroaches. They will run all the way home and we will follow them.

While we are forced to pull back, a convoy of European monitors, the OSCE, and the Australian Federal Police have taken another route. They drive past rebels and on to the site.

LTFO:   OK, important now that we keep together as a group.

But even as they are about to begin, a remarkable citizen's effort to uncover the truth about what happened to MH17 is under way. It's through social media that a revealing picture is starting to emerge. The BUK missile launcher, which is believed to have brought down the plane was sighted around 9:00 am here in Donetsk.

REPORTER:   So eye witnesses report the missile launcher moving down here, down this avenue, and turning right here into this boulevard, where it eventually made its way eastwards out of the city. This man says he saw it go past, but such is the climate of fear in this city, he doesn't want to be identified.

MAN (Translation):  I was right next to it so I could see it clearly what the carrier vehicle was. Well, it was a truck-mounted... let's say, a surface-to-air missile system. At the time I had no reason to doubt that and it had four quite hefty missiles mounted on it.

He also says he checked what he saw on the internet.

MAN (Translation):  The very first web search for anti-aircraft missile systems brought it up, I had no doubts at all.

After starting in Donetsk, by 11:40 am, it was filmed further east in the town of Zuhres. Approximately 20 minutes later, it was photographed in the nearby Torez. At 1:30pm it was sighted at Snizhne, now off its transporter. There was speculation the missile was fired from somewhere near there. The plane disappeared from radar around 5:15pm. This video, time unknown, shows the missile launcher back on its trailer and heading through the town of Luhansk, north of Snizhne. One missile is missing.

We wanted to follow the missile launcher's trail and question people in those towns, but heavy fighting there made it far too dangerous to try, so it's about 7:00 here in the morning in Donetsk and we're about to leave the city to go to the crash site. Because of the trouble we had the other day, we're going to go in convoy with the OSCE, which is the only safe way to travel into the site.

The war is never far away. There's a negotiation required every few kilometres. Eventually, we reach the site. The Australian Federal Police move in. The world has now seen many pictures like these, but to be here is a moving experience. As the war continues, investigators face a long and arduous quest for the truth and a measure of justice for the victims of this unspeakable act.

ANJALI RAO:  Nick Lazaredes reporting. Well, he is still in Ukraine, but he is now out of harm's way. He says he is worried, though, about all of those who are caught in the crossfire, especially with some big battles ahead. There's a video blog from Nick on our website, with more on his journey to the crash scene and the emotional effect that seeing the wreckage has had on him. For this personal insight into the crisis take a look at sbs.com.au/dateline.

Reporter/Camera
NICHOLAS LAZAREDES

Producers
GEOFF PARISH
CALLISTE WEITENBERG

Fixer
ANDRIY IGNATOV

Additional Camera
VLADYMYR CHEPPEL

Editors
DAVID POTTS
WAYNE LOVE

Graphics  
MICHAEL BROWN

Translations/Subtitling
ELENA MIKHAILIK

5th August 2014