Specialist Australian Federal Police (AFP) have completed their third consecutive day of investigations at the MH17 crash site despite deadly fighting between Ukrainian government troops and pro-Russian rebels continuing nearby.
Members of the 38-strong AFP team recovered human remains and passenger belongings during their first visit to the area as part of a team of 80 Dutch and Australian officials.
The AFP says it's officers will "continue to conduct a co-ordinated search of the site."
"The team will continue daily efforts to access the site, when its safe to do so, subject to an ongoing assessment of the security conditions," the AFP said on Sunday night.
If the area remains stable, AFP national security specialist Andrew Colvin expects their mission to continue for seven to 10 days.
The AFP team is not gathering evidence to investigate the crash but is assisting with body recovery and identification.
As well as the Australian and Dutch officials, 68 Malaysian police have departed Kiev to join the international recovery mission, Euromaidan Public Responsibility tweeted.
It's more than two weeks since the Malaysia Airlines passenger jet came down after being hit by a missile, killing all 298 people on board, including 38 Australian residents
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has warned a lengthy task lies ahead.
He could not say how many bodies had been recovered overnight, nor how many more could lay undiscovered in the 50 square kilometre search area.
"It will be a long and slow process and I expect our officials will be on site for a week or so yet and that's assuming nothing goes wrong," Mr Abbott said on Saturday.
Further comment is being sought from the AFP.
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