A team of Dutch and OSCE rescue workers have started securing the site in Ukraine where a passenger plane was brought down earlier this year.

Flight MH17 was downed over a war zone in the east where pro-Russian rebels are fighting Kyiv government forces.

All passengers and crew – most of them Dutch – were killed.

Retrieving the wreckage has been delayed for months because of fighting on the ground.

Rebel officials were expected to provide the equipment needed to start lifting large pieces of debris.

But that did not happen on Tuesday, causing further delays.

The rescue team instead secured several zones around the crash site with warning signs.

Dutch officials are conducting two investigations: one into the cause of the crash, and a criminal inquiry.

But no forensic investigators have made it to the crash site. And that makes recovering evidence nearly impossible.