The Prime Minister of the Netherlands is ruling out a military mission to secure the crash site of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine.  The site is currently under the control of Russian-backed rebels.  PM Mark Rutte sending in troops would be “unrealistic”.

“Getting the military upper hand for an international mission in this area is, according to our conclusion, not realistic,” said PM Rutte to reporters at The Hague.

193 of the 298 passengers and crew aboard MH17 were Dutch, making the Netherlands the country hit hardest by the downing of the plane.  Australia lost 38 people.  There are still plans for Australia and the Netherlands to deploy 49 police officers.

“Our objective is to get in, get cracking and to get out,” said Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

But there is heavy fighting in the eastern regions around Donetsk and Luhansk as Ukrainian government troops try to take back more territory from the pro-Moscow separatists.  Dutch and Australian crash investigators had to call off their first day at the crash site.  Witnesses heard artillery just a kilometer from the wreckage.  

US intelligence experts have said they believe that the Moscow-backed separatists downed MH17 by mistake with a surface-to-air missile provided by Russia.  Moscow denies this.