Two jets carrying bodies from crashed Malaysia Airlines plane have landed in the Netherlands where a day of mourning for the 298 victims has been declared.
Experts there will begin to identify the dead, most of whom were Dutch.
Pro-Russian rebels have been widely accused of shooting down the Malaysia Airlines plane on July 17.
UK government sources say intelligence shows rebels deliberately tampered with evidence, moving bodies and placing parts from other planes in the debris.
As fighting continued in eastern Ukraine on Wednesday, officials in Kiev said that two aircraft, thought to be military jets, had been downed just 20 miles from the MH17 crash site.
The officials had no information on the cause of the crashes, or the fate of the pilots.
Planes carrying bodies from crashed MH17 flight have landed in the Netherlands (photo EPA)
US intelligence officials had earlier released evidence to the media that they said showed the separatists’ involvement in bringing down flight MH17.
Rebels have also been accused of exaggerating the number of bodies transported from the crash site to the town of Kharkiv on Tuesday.
They had claimed 282 bodies had been loaded on to a train, but experts said only 200 could be verified.
The two military planes – one Dutch and the other Australian – carrying the first 40 coffins landed at Eindhoven air base to be met by members of the Dutch royal family, PM Mark Rutte and hundreds of victims’ relatives.
Churches around the Netherlands rang their bells for five minutes before the planes landed.
A fleet of hearses was standing by to convey the bodies to the Korporaal van Oudheusden barracks south of the city of Hilversum for identification.
PM Mark Rutte said that process could take months.
Earlier, the coffins had been slowly loaded on to the planes by a military guard of honor at Kharkiv airport in eastern Ukraine.
Ambassadors, officials and soldiers gathered to see off the planes.
Australian government envoy Angus Houston said the ceremony was intended to give the victims the “respect and dignity they deserve” after a “tragedy of unspeakable proportions”.
In a separate process, the “black box” flight-data recorders from MH17 have arrived in the UK, where they will be examined at the headquarters of the Air Accidents Investigation Branch in Farnborough.
A rebel militiaman told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera that he had been ordered to the crash site minutes after the MH17 plane had gone down.
He said his commanders had told him: “We’ve just shot down one of the Kiev fascists’ planes.”
The militiaman said: “We thought we were looking for baled-out Ukrainian pilots but instead we found dead civilians.”
Earlier in Washington, officials from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence presented evidence they had gathered on the involvement of the rebels.
“It’s a solid case that it’s an SA-11 [missile] that was fired from eastern Ukraine under conditions the Russians helped create,” said the officials, who requested that their names not be reported.
They said the “most plausible explanation” for the shooting down of the plane was that rebels mistook it for another aircraft.
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The first remains recovered from Malaysia Airlines MH17 plane that crashed in Ukraine last week are to be flown to the Netherlands for identification.
The Netherlands is holding a day of mourning for the 298 killed in the July 17 crash, 193 of whom were Dutch.
Meanwhile, US intelligence officials say pro-Russian rebels shot down the jet by mistake, but they have not found any direct link to Russia.
The plane crashed in a rebel-held area after apparently being hit by a rocket.
A refrigerated train carriage carrying about 200 bodies from the crash site arrived in the government-held city of Kharkiv on Tuesday.
About 50 coffins were laid out at the airport on Wednesday morning in preparation for the flight.
Investigators said they would continue to search the crash site for more bodies.
The first remains recovered from MH17 plane that crashed in Ukraine are to be flown to the Netherlands for identification
The first bodies from flight MH17 are due to arrive in Eindhoven at 16:00 local time after a farewell ceremony attended by Ukrainian officials in Kharkiv.
Members of the Dutch royal family and PM Mark Rutte will meet the plane.
The bodies are then due to be taken to the Korporaal van Oudheusden barracks for identification.
Mark Rutte said that process could take months.
In a separate process, the “black box” flight-data recorders from MH17 have been handed to Dutch authorities by Malaysian officials.
The devices will be sent to Farnborough in the UK for analysis.
In Washington, officials from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence presented evidence they had gathered on the involvement of the rebels.
“It’s a solid case that it’s an SA-11 [missile] that was fired from eastern Ukraine under conditions the Russians helped create,” said the officials, who requested that their names not be reported.
They said the “most plausible explanation” for the shooting down of the plane was that rebels mistook it for another aircraft.
The evidence they presented included:
- Satellite images of a facility allegedly used to train rebels near the Russian city of Rostov
- Other images purportedly showing a surface-to-air missile launcher in the area
- Analysis of voice recordings of pro-Russian rebels apparently admitting bringing the airliner down
- Photos and messages from social-media sites pointing to rebel involvement
The US and other nations have accused rebels of blocking access to the crash site, putting valuable evidence at risk.
In Australia, former President Bill Clinton paid tribute to six HIV/Aids campaigners who were on board MH17.
Bill Clinton said their lives had been “overpowering in their contribution to a shared future”.
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The bodies of victims from crashed MH17 plane have been moved out of the rebel-held area in eastern Ukraine.
The remains, carried by train, have arrived in the city of Kharkiv, outside rebel territory.
Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crashed in an area held by pro-Russia rebels on July 17, killing all 298 people on board.
Meanwhile, international monitors say parts of the wreckage have been changed and cut into since they first saw them.
MH17 remains have arrived in the city of Kharkiv, outside rebel territory
Western nations say there is growing evidence the rebels shot down the plane using a missile supplied by Russia.
Russia has suggested Ukrainian government forces are to blame.
Most of those who died in the crash of the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 were Dutch, and the first remains are due to be flown from Kharkiv to the Dutch city of Eindhoven on Wednesday.
From there, they will go to a facility in the Dutch city of Hilversum for identification – a process which could take months, Dutch PM Mark Rutte warned.
The bodies will be kept in refrigerated rail carriages in Kharkiv while they are being prepared for transport, a spokeswoman for the Dutch forensics team has said.
Countries directly affected by the disaster, such as the Netherlands, Australia, and the UK, have been concerned that the crash site was not properly sealed off, with the risk that valuable evidence could be put at risk.
European Union foreign ministers are meeting to consider further sanctions against Russia over its alleged backing for the rebels – something Moscow denies.
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