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RUSSIA declared last night it would support an Australian-led UN Security Council resolution giving international backing to an investigation into the destruction of Flight MH17 over a disputed area of Ukraine.Moscow’s ambassador to ­Canberra, Vladimir Morozov, told The Australian he had just been told that agreement had been reached on the wording of the resolution that was to be voted on by the UN Security Council at 3PM New York time (5PM AEST) today.

Tony Abbott said he was confident that Foreign Minister Julie Bishop would gather the support in New York to get the resolution through.

“I think that we can rely upon our Foreign Minister to be absolutely indefatigable in rounding up the numbers for this resolution,” the Prime Minister said.

“It is a strong resolution calling for full and unfettered access to the site, ensuring that bodies are properly retrieved, properly dealt with the respect and dignity that they deserve.”

The Prime Minister said Bishop was in New York prosecuting Australia’s case and Australia’s resolution “should be carried by acclamation”.

“Decency and justice requires that this resolution by carried by acclamation but as we all know, these are difficult and daunting times and it is wrong to be too ­certain about what the future might hold,” Abbott said.

Bishop arrived in New York late on Sunday night to lead Australia’s campaign to have the  Security Council adopt a binding resolution to ensure access to the crash site and a proper international investigation.

She was quick to warn that the bodies of the dead must not be used as pawns by those who had them.

She said the looting and the removal of evidence, equipment and aircraft parts must stop.

“I say to the separatists and to the Russian government that backs them, that there are 298 bodies on that site — their families, their loved ones want them home now. This is not a time to use bodies as hostages or pawns in the Ukrainian-Russian conflict,” she said.

“It is time for these bodies to be brought home and it’s time for an investigation into who is responsible for this atrocity to begin.”

It seeks to lend the full weight of the Security Council to the need for all parties to support an independent international investigation and to co-operate fully with that investigation.

It is understood that the resolution was circulated yesterday to members of the Security Council of which Australia is a non-permanent member.

Mr Abbott has spoken to the leaders of four of the five permanent members of the Security Council — the US, France, Britain and Russia. Australia is confident China will not block it.

Morozov said Russia and Australia had been in strong agreement all along on the need for an investigation into the crash and who caused it.

There were two draft resolutions, one from Australia and the other from Russia. After negotiations, some of the wording from the Russian draft had been included in Australia’s, he said.

Russia wanted the investigation to be carried out by the International Civil Aviation Organisation, he said.

“Now the two drafts are one.” Mr Morozov said.

Russia would support the Australian-led resolution, he said.

Meanwhile, in the  the Hague, Netherlands it is no longer only grief and mourning sweeping across the country in the aftermath of the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. It is now anger.

The Dutch have widely condemned the way the bodies of loved ones have been treated in Ukraine and the fact they have not yet been returned home four days after Thursday’s tragedy.

In an unusual move that underscored the severity of the national trauma, a sombre King Willem-Alexander gave a brief televised address to his country after meeting grieving relatives near the central city of Utrecht.

“This terrible disaster has left a deep wound in our society,” the king said. “The scar will be visible and tangible for years to come.”
Speaking after the same private meeting with hundreds of friends and relatives of the dead, Prime Minister Mark Rutte acknowledged the nation’s discontent.

“All of the Netherlands feels their anger,” Rutte said. “All of the Netherlands feels their deep grief. All of the Netherlands is standing with the next of kin.”

Of the 298 passengers and crew killed in the downing to the plane 193 Dutch were citizens.

Lawmakers hurried back from their summer recess for a meeting yesterday with Rutte, who told them that getting the bodies home as soon as possible was his government’s top priority. He said a Dutch military transport plane was ready to repatriate the remains, which are now being stored in a refrigerated train in a rebel-held town.

“If the train finally gets going and the bodies get to Ukraine-controlled territory then we would prefer — and a Hercules is ready at Kharkiv airport — to get the bodies back to the Netherlands as soon as possible,” Rutte said. — The Australian-The Star.