The bodies of some of the first victims recovered from downed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 have been brought to the Netherlands from the crash site in eastern Ukraine. 
 
 Two military aircraft - one Dutch and the other Australian - left Kharkiv Airport in northeastern Ukraine earlier carrying the bodies of 40 victims between them in wooden coffins. 
 
 The jets arrived at Eindhoven airport in the Netherlands where they were met by relatives, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and members of the Dutch royal family. 
 
 Bells were sounded across the country and the Last Post played at the airport as an eerie silence fell across the airbase. 
 
 A coffin of one victim is carried from a plane to a hearse in Eindhoven 
 
 The coffins were carried off the planes by military personnel and each one put in a hearse. 
 
 Sky's Ian Woods, at the airport, said: "Around 1,000 relatives are watching from behind a screen, including members of two British families, even though they don't know if their loved ones are on board the planes." 
 
 Play video "Crash Victims' Bodies Leave Ukraine" Video: Crash Victims' Bodies Leave Ukraine 
 
 A minute's silence was observed nationwide, and a motorcade took the bodies to the Korporaal Van Oudheusdenkazerne military barracks in Hilversum, where the long process of identifying the remains will begin using DNA, dental records and finger prints. 
 
 Jean Fransman, a spokesman for the ministry of security in the Netherlands, told Sky News: "We have chosen this location because these facilities have everything that's needed to carry out the identification process as quickly as possible with respect and discretion." 
 
 There was a national day of mourning in the Netherlands for the 298 people killed, including 193 Dutch, that also included a silent march in Amsterdam. 
 
 Play video "The Challenges Of MH17 Forensics" Video: The Challenges Of MH17 Forensics 
 
 The Dutch Prime Minister has warned it could take weeks or even months to formally identify the victims before their bodies are released for repatriation. 
 
 A team of nine disaster victim identification (DVI) personnel from Britain, including six police officers, a crime scene manager and forensic photographer, will assist the Dutch authorities, which are leading the investigation. 
 
 The bodies are the first of some 200 victims which are expected to be flown out of Ukraine during the course of this week. 
 
 Play video "Missile System 'That Downed MH17'" Video: Missile System 'That Downed MH17' 
 
 It is thought more than 80 bodies still remain at the scene. 
 
 However, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has cast doubt over the numbers that have been recovered and handed over by pro-Russian separatists, and warned it is unclear how many bodies may have arrived in Kharkiv and been left behind. 
 
 "It's quite possible that many bodies are still out there in the open, in the European summer, subject to interference and subject to the ravages of heat and animals," he said. 
 
 Play video "Footage Of Downed Ukrainian Jets" Video: Footage Of Downed Ukrainian Jets 
 
 Meanwhile, unverified video has emerged apparently showing the wreckage of two Ukrainian fighter jets which were reportedly shot down by separatists. ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption "Nations united in grief": Annita McVeigh reports on the ceremony at Eindhoven 
 
 The Netherlands has received the first victims' bodies from crashed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in a solemn ceremony at Eindhoven air base. 
 
 Forty hearses left for the town of Hilversum where the formal identification process will begin. 
 
 The Netherlands is observing a national day of mourning for the 298 victims, most of whom were Dutch. 
 
 Ukrainian pro-Russian rebels have been widely accused of shooting down the plane on 17 July. 
 
 UK government sources say intelligence shows rebels deliberately tampered with evidence, moving bodies and placing parts from other planes in the debris. 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Ukrainian PM Arseniy Yatseniuk claims one of its jets may have been downed by an air-to-air missile 
 
 As fighting continued in eastern Ukraine on Wednesday, officials in Kiev told the BBC that two aircraft, thought to be military jets, had been downed just 35km (20 miles) from the crash site. 
 
 Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk later told the BBC that one of the fighters could have been hit by an air-to-air missile. He did not directly accuse Russia but said it was not brought down by a Ukrainian jet. 
 
 Image copyright Reuters Image caption The hearses left Eindhoven air base in a cortege, passed flags at half mast 
 
 Image copyright AP Image caption Members of the Dutch royal family and Prime Minister Mark Rutte watched the coffins leave the planes 
 
 Image copyright Reuters Image caption Earlier, honour guards had carried the coffins on to two planes at Kharkiv airport 
 
 Image copyright Reuters Image caption Many observing the day of mourning went to Schiphol Airport, where flight MH17 took off from, to lay flowers 
 
 Image copyright AP Image caption Teams of investigators from several countries are still at the crash site 
 
 Two military planes - one Dutch and the other Australian - carrying the first 40 coffins landed at Eindhoven air base on Wednesday afternoon. They were met by members of the Dutch royal family, Prime Minister Mark Rutte and hundreds of victims' relatives. 
 
 Churches around the Netherlands rang their bells for five minutes before the planes landed, and flags of all the nations affected by the disaster have been flying at half mast. There was also a minute's silence. 
 
 The coffins were slowly loaded into a fleet of waiting hearses which then moved off in motorcades. 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption A day of mourning is being held in the Netherlands, Anna Holligan reports 
 
 All the bodies are being taken to the Korporaal van Oudheusden barracks south of the city of Hilversum for identification, a process that could take months. 
 
 Two more planes carrying victims are due to arrive in Eindhoven on Thursday. 
 
 Earlier, the coffins had been loaded on to the planes by a military guard of honour at Kharkiv airport in eastern Ukraine. 
 
 There has been mounting international anger at the delays in recovering the bodies. 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Pro-Russian rebel leader Alexander Borodai denied neglecting bodies at the scene 
 
 However, separatist leader Alexander Borodai told BBC Newsnight that international observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) had told them to leave the bodies to be collected by experts. 
 
 "So we wait a day. We wait a second day. A third day. Come on! Not a single expert. Well, to leave the bodies there any longer, in 30 degree heat, it's absurd. It's simply inhuman. It's a scene from a horror movie," he said. 
 
 OSCE spokesman Michael Bociurkiw denied they told rebels not to move the bodies. He told the BBC: "It is not consistent with our mandate to tell people what to do. We're here to monitor, observe and report." 
 
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 Rebels have also been accused of exaggerating the number of bodies transported from the crash site to the town of Kharkiv on Tuesday. 
 
 They had claimed there were 282 bodies but experts said only 200 could be verified. 
 
 In a separate development, the Dutch air safety board said the cockpit voice recorder from flight MH17 had been successfully downloaded and contained "valid data from the flight". 
 
 The "black box" flight-data recorders are being examined at the headquarters of the UK's Air Accidents Investigation Branch in Farnborough. 
 
 Image copyright AP Image caption Experts have expressed concern that forensic evidence at the crash site could be lost 
 
 Earlier in Washington, intelligence officials presented evidence they had gathered on the involvement of the rebels. 
 
 "It's a solid case that it's an SA-11 [missile] that was fired from eastern Ukraine under conditions the Russians helped create," said the officials, who requested that their names not be reported. 
 
 They said the "most plausible explanation" was that rebels mistook the airliner for another aircraft. 
 
 The evidence they presented included: 
 
 Satellite images of a facility allegedly used to train rebels near the Russian city of Rostov, which were later tweeted by Geoffrey Pyatt, US ambassador to Ukraine 
 
 Other images purportedly showing a surface-to-air missile launcher in the area 
 
 Analysis of voice recordings of pro-Russian rebels apparently admitting bringing the airliner down 
 
 Photos and messages from social-media sites pointing to rebel involvement 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Richard Galpin reports from Kharkiv airport as some of the victims' "long journey home" begins 
 
 BBC security correspondent Gordon Corera said some observers suggested the US statement constituted a subtle backing off from more assertive claims over the weekend in which they said they could not rule out a direct Russian role. American diplomats said this was not the case. 
 
 Meanwhile, fighting between Ukrainian government forces and rebels around the rebel stronghold of Donetsk has reportedly left 16 people dead. 
 
 A statement from overall military commander Igor Strelkov posted on a rebel website said he had withdrawn his fighters from the outskirts of Donetsk. 
 
 He said they had pulled back and were prepared to defend their positions. 
 
 The fighting in eastern Ukraine erupted in April and is believed to have claimed more than 1,000 lives.
– The planes carrying the bodies of some of the first victims recovered from the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crash site have landed in the Netherlands, Sky News reports. The two military aircraft, one Dutch and one Australian, contain a total of 40 bodies in wooden coffins; they took off from Ukraine's Kharkiv Airport and landed at Eindhoven Airport, where the Dutch prime minister, members of the Dutch royal family, and hundreds of relatives of the victims were waiting, the BBC reports. Bells were tolled for five minutes before military personnel carried the coffins off the planes and put them in hearses; they'll be taken to a military barracks for identification. Click for the poignant stories of the final hours of some of MH17's victims.