Nine MH17 crash victims still unaccounted for

Nine of the 298 victims of July’s deadly Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine over land held by pro-Russian rebels are still unaccounted for, Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders said.

The Dutch minister was speaking after a ceremony in Kharkiv as five more victims of the deadly crash were flown to the Netherlands on Saturday,

The Boeing 777 Malaysian Airlines was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it crashed in territory held by pro-Russian rebels.

The majority of the victims - 193 - were Dutch.

The Netherlands has the lead role in investigating the crash of the Boeing 777 aircraft in July. Investigators have had little access to the crash site as clashes continue nearby between Ukrainian government forces and the separatists.

"We cannot say at this moment in any certain way... at what moment and even if we can recover the last nine, but we will do everything we can in co-operation with authorities here to make that happen," he said.

He added that investigators still hoped to recover more remnants of the plane, but it was unclear when this would happen because of uncertainties about the security situation.

Kyiv accuses pro-Russian separatists of shooting down the plane, while Russian officials have denied the allegations and instead suggested Ukrainian fighter jets were culpable.

Koenders said experts had already come "a long way" with the identification process and would do everything they could to find more remains.

Initial investigations at the site were suspended in August because of heavy fighting in the area.

They resumed in September after a ceasefire deal was signed, with experts making four visits to the site.

A report issued in September by Dutch investigators found MH17 was hit by multiple "high-energy" objects.