A Russian museum plans to put on show a fragment of flight MH17, shot down over Ukraine last year, as part of an exhibition marking 70 years since the Soviet Union's victory in World War II, according to local reports.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Several online reports in Russia picked up on the article in local newspaper The Council of the Azov Region.
According to the article, a fragment of the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 was found by locals from the Ukraine town of Rassypnoye near where the plane fell.
They gave it to the Russian veterans' group Combat Brotherhood, in gratitude for their sending supplies such as food, clothing and medicine.
It will be delivered to Yeisk, a town on the shores of the Azov Sea, where it will go on show in a Combat Brotherhood-themed exhibition, to open in a new museum on the 70th anniversary of the Soviet Union's victory in Europe.
Radio station Ekho Moskvy quoted a local representative of Combat Brotherhood saying the portion of the plane would be exhibited as "proof" that separatist fighters in Ukraine's Donetsk region did not shoot it down.
The newspaper article features a photo of a man holding a plane fragment with the Malaysia Airlines logo clearly visible.
MH17 was shot down over war-torn Ukraine in July last year, killing all 298 passengers and crew on board including 38 Australians.
Ekho Moskvy deputy editor Tatiana Felgenhauer tweeted that Dutch investigators, who have been gathering pieces of the wreckage in order to determine the cause of the crash, were shocked to hear that the wreckage had ended up in a Russian town.
They "asked how it was possible", she said.
Last Friday Dutch Deputy Prime Minister Lodewijk Asscher announced a new recovery mission to eastern Ukraine to search for more plane debris, human remains or personal belongings that may be left.
For the first time the team will be able to search the north-western area of the crash site, which has until now not been possible because it was deemed too dangerous due to fighting in the area – and it was "strewn with landmines", a Dutch officer told Reuters.
The precarious ceasefire in Ukraine's conflict has led to improved security, Mr Asscher said.
"It is possible that not everything will be found," he said. "Good agreements have been made with the local authorities in the event that something is found at a later date.
"Anything found during the present mission will be brought back to the Netherlands with the customary degree of ceremony."
The investigators hope to recover remains from the last two missing victims of the crash.
