Ukraine fighter jets shot down as bodies of some MH17 victims return home

Victims of the Malaysian jetliner shot down over Ukraine returned at last Wednesday to Dutch soil in 40 wooden coffins, solemnly and gently carried to 40 identical hearses, flags at half-staff flapping in the wind.

The nearly silent ceremony in Netherlands took place as pro-Russian rebels shot down two Ukrainian fighter jets in eastern Ukraine, a spokesman for Ukrainian military operations told Reuters. It signaled renewed hostilities in the restive eastern part of Ukraine.

Ukrainian officials said that separatists brought down two of four SU-25 planes flying near the border with Russia that were assisting military forces on the ground.

The pilots, who tried to maneuver away from the missiles shot from the ground, managed to get out of the planes before they were brought down, Ukrainian officials said. 

However, separatist military leader Igor Strelkov said that only one plane was brought down. 

The fresh violence came while the Dutch observed a day of national mourning. Family members of the victims took part in a ceremony that was also attended by the Dutch king, queen and prime minister.

The crash on Thursday killed all 298 people — most of them Dutch citizens — aboard Flight 17. Identification of those being brought back to the Netherlands could take weeks or months given that many of the bodies are in pieces, according to forensic investigators. DNA investigations will also be a part of the identification process. 

Ukraine and Western nations continued pressing the pro-Russian rebels who control the crash site to allow an unfettered investigation, something Russian President Vladimir Putin said he would use his influence to achieve. Though confident that a missile brought down the aircraft, U.S. officials say Russia's role remains unclear.

Two military transport planes, one Dutch and one Australian, departed Ukraine earlier Wednesday, heading for Eindhoven air base in the Netherlands, where they were met by Dutch King Willem-Alexander, Queen Maxima, Prime Minister Mark Rutte and hundreds of relatives of the victims. 

For one grieving mother, the arrival of the bodies marked a new stage of mourning and brought to an end the pain of seeing television images of victims lying in the undulating fields or in body bags being loaded onto a train.

"If I have to wait five months for identification, I can do it," said Silene Fredriksz-Hoogzand to The Associated Press, whose son, Bryce, and his girlfriend Daisy Oehlers died in the crash. "Waiting while the bodies were in the field and in the train was a nightmare."

There was confusion as well about how many of the 282 corpses that the rebels said they have found were on the train that arrived in Kharkiv, a government-controlled city, on Tuesday.

Jan Tuinder, the Dutch official in charge of the international team dealing with the dead, said that at least 200 bodies were aboard the train and that more remains could be found once the body bags are examined fully.

Britain's Air Accidents Investigation Branch said Wednesday that Dutch authorities had delivered the plane's two "black boxes" to the agency's base at Farnborough, southern England, where information from the data and voice recorders will be downloaded.

The Dutch Safety Board announced that it will lead an international team of 24 investigators, and said unhindered access to the crash site is critical.

"At the moment, there are no guarantees for the investigators' safety" at the scene, the board said, adding that it "and other parties" are working to get access to the site and to secure it.

A Canadian military transport plane was due to leave Kharkiv with more coffins later on Wednesday.

Wreckage of the Boeing 777 fell on territory controlled by pro-Russian separatists who have been battling the Kiev government since April. U.S. officials say the plane was probably shot down by a missile, most likely by accident.

On Tuesday, the European Union imposed sanctions against more Russian individuals but refrained from targeting entire sectors of the Russian economy while waiting for clearer evidence of Moscow's role in the disaster. 

Al Jazeera and wire services. David Chater and Nazanine Moshiri contributed to this report.