Ukrainian rebels deny reports they agreed to a 'security zone' around MH17 site

Pro-Russian separatists in the eastern Ukraine have denied reports that they today agreed to a security zone around the MH17 crash site.

Sergei Kavtaradze, a senior official with the Donetsk People’s Republic, said that an agreement had not been reached with Ukrainian authorities to provide a ‘safe zone’ that would allow investigators to analyse the MH17 debris.

“There is no security zone, it is in a region near the front, there is military activity there” he told Reuters.

The head of Ukraine’s security service, Valentyn Nalyvaychenko, had earlier said that the two sides had agreed to a 20km security zone around the site to “identify the bodies and hand them over to relatives.”

Pro-Russian militants have hampered the efforts of investigators to approach the crash site throughout the day, preventing the removal of bodies and examination of the plane’s wreckage.