Just when the news out of eastern Ukraine couldn't get any worse, it did. Separatists controlling the area of of the MH17 wreckage have declared that they can only ensure international investigators will have access to the crash site if Ukraine agrees to a truce: "We declare that we will guarantee the safety of international experts on the scene as soon as Kiev concludes a ceasefire agreement," said Andre Purgin, a senior leader of the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic. The declaration amounts to blackmail, as Nina Ivanovna put it; The separatists are holding the bodies of MH17 passengers hostage in exchange for territory.

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