Memorial strengthens sad Bishop's resolve

A sea of tributes for the victims of doomed flight MH17 has strengthened the resolve of Foreign Minister Julie Bishop to find those who shot down the passenger jet.

The minister stopped at a makeshift memorial outside the Dutch embassy in Kiev overnight, where piles of toys, teddy bears, notes and flowers have been gathered.

"It's so unspeakably sad," Ms Bishop said as she inspected the memorial.

A week after the aircraft was shot down over eastern Ukraine killing all 298 people on board, Ms Bishop said she is increasingly aware how much pain and anguish there is across the world.

"And seeing these flowers and tributes and toys reminds us that there were 80 children on board that flight.

"It firms my resolve to get a resolution and closure for all the people involved in this atrocity. And that's what it was, a crime."

Ms Bishop was travelling with Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans who on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding with his Ukrainian counterpart Pavlo Klimkin which officially put the Netherlands in charge of the crash investigation.