Observers, investigators kept away by fighting

SHAKHTARSK, Ukraine (AP) — A member of an observation team trying to reach the debris from the Malaysia Airlines plane in eastern Ukraine says, “We are sick and tired of being interrupted by gunfights.”

Heavy fighting near the debris field today again prevented an international police team from reaching the site, which it is supposed to secure. The Australian and Dutch police and forensic experts stopped in a town about 20 miles away.

Government troops have stepped up their push to win back territory from pro-Russian separatists in fighting that the United Nations said today has killed more than 1,100 people in four months.

Meanwhile, the flight recorders from the Malaysia Airlines jet are revealing more about what happened.

According to a Ukrainian security spokesman, the recorders show that the plane suffered a massive, explosive loss of pressure after being punctured multiple times by shrapnel. The spokesman says the fragments that hit the plane came from a missile.

%@AP Links

149-a-15-(Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin (PAV’-loh KLIHM’-kihn), in AP interview)-“sort of traces”-Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin says pro-Russian separatists are rejecting a cease-fire in hopes of destroying any evidence that they shot down the Malaysian airliner. (28 Jul 2014)

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152-a-16-(Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin (PAV’-loh KLIHM’-kihn), in AP interview)-“Russian security services”-Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin says there’s no internal conflict within Ukraine, so the fighting is because of interference from Russia. (28 Jul 2014)

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APPHOTO MOSB112: Self-proclamed Donetsk People’s Republic policemen watch shelling in Shakhtarsk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine on Monday, July 28, 2014. An international police team abandoned its attempt to reach the crash site of a Malaysia Airlines plane for a second day running Monday as clashes raged in a town on the road to the area.(AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky) (28 Jul 2014)

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Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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