International experts abandon Ukrainian base near MH17 crash site

SOLEDAR, Ukraine — Once buzzing with activity, this sleepy compound in the rolling hills of eastern Ukraine emptied quickly on Thursday as the last of a team of international experts left, their mission to identify the remains of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 indefinitely suspended.

The development comes as fighting between Ukrainian government forces and separatist rebels rages on despite pledges from both sides not to interfere with the work of identifying the remains of around 80 bodies still believed to be scattered throughout the sprawling site.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced the suspension on Wednesday evening, saying it was too dangerous to proceed.

“We have done what we could do in the current conditions,” he told reporters in The Hague. “Everyone will agree with us that we should not expose our people to unnecessary risk.”

By noon on Thursday, the last vehicles that formed part of the international convoy and their local police escorts had left the crumbling compound in this provincial city in Ukrainian-controlled territory, about an hour's drive north of the crash site.

The area had served as the forward operating base for the joint team of Dutch, Australian and Malaysian investigators, and had bustled with activity each evening as the experts returned from their grueling, hours-long searches in the fields.

Their mission’s suspension coincides with renewed concerns from Western officials that Russia may be preparing to invade eastern Ukraine.

NATO officials say Moscow has stationed some 20,000 combat-ready troops on its border with eastern Ukraine and may deploy them under the guise of either a humanitarian mission or peacekeeping operation.

“We’re not going to guess what’s on Russia’s mind,” Reuters reported Oana Lungescu, a NATO spokeswoman, as saying. “But we can see what Russia is doing on the ground — and that is of great concern.”

The Kremlin has regularly lashed out against what it claims is an unfolding humanitarian catastrophe in Ukraine, thanks largely to the Ukrainian military’s allegedly indiscriminate bombing of the civilian population.

In a visit to the capital Kyiv on Thursday, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen urged Russia to “step back from the brink,” news agencies reported.

Fears among experts and observers that Moscow may repeat the “Georgian scenario” —when it invaded the Caucasus Mountains country in August 2008 under the pretext of protecting residents of its pro-Moscow breakaway republic South Ossetia — are rising.

But here in “liberated” areas of eastern Ukraine, there are few outward signs of such concerns, with local residents eager to see an end to fighting that’s wreaking havoc on infrastructure and lives across the sprawling industrial region.

Any end still appears distant, however.

The Ukrainian military is reportedly continuing to pound rebel-held territory and appears poised to retake the rebel stronghold of Donetsk.

But observers predict any attempted liberation of the city, with is densely populated and full of apartment high-rises, will result in staggering civilian casualties.

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