An international police team abandoned its attempt to reach the crash site of a Malaysia Airlines plane for a second day running on Monday as clashes raged in a town on the road to the area.
With government troops intensifying their push to claw back more territory from pro-Russian separatist rebels, the death toll is mounting steadily.
The international delegation of Australian and Dutch police and forensic experts stopped on Monday in Shakhtarsk, a town around 30 kilometres from the fields where the Boeing 777 was brought down.
Sounds of regular shelling could be heard from Shakhtarsk and residents were seen fleeing town in cars.
Their visit was cancelled on Sunday amid safety concerns.
Ukraine has accused rebels of tampering with evidence and trying to cover up their alleged role in bringing the Malaysia Airlines plane down with an anti-aircraft missile.
Ukrainian security spokesman Andrei Lysenko said on Monday that data from the recovered flight recorders shows Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashed due to a massive, explosive loss of pressure after being punctured multiple times by shrapnel.
Mr. Lysenko said the plane suffered “massive explosive decompression” after it was hit by fragments he said came from a missile.
The data recorders were sent to experts in Britain for examination.
