The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and international investigators of the Malaysia Airlines crash in eastern Ukraine had to halt search efforts due to fighting between Ukrainian forces and rebels near Donetsk.
Alexander Hug is the Deputy Head of the OSCE Mission to Ukraine.
"We are just back from the fifth day in a row from the crash site. We left this morning Donetsk and then picked up, in Debaltseve, the convoy of a hundred experts of police. We moved with them on to a crash site, on to a field they have not yet searched. However, it was not possible for us to reach that field due to security considerations and we stopped the convoy at a secure location."
Hug says the OSCE mission will continue its work not only in Donestk but across Ukraine.
The recovery mission has been delayed as the Ukraine government stepped up its offensive on rebel forces.
As the fighting continues, a Russian border security official says that more than 400 Ukrainian soldiers have crossed into Russia.
The Russian official says the soldiers have been given refuge in Russia as defectors.
But a Ukrainian military official says the soldiers were forced into Russian territory by rebel fire after running out of ammunition.
