Is this rebel stealing a victim's ring? Outrage as picture emerges showing militiamen rifling through MH17 wreckage

                                     

A photograph widely circulating on social media last night purported to show a Russian separatist fighter stealing a ring from a victim of the MH17 crash. In the picture three rebels wearing military uniforms appear to be rifling through the wreckage.

A blonde-haired fighter, wearing a black beret, is bent over what looks like wreckage and apparently holding what seems to be a gold ring. The suggestion is that it could have been found amid a victim’s belongings or even taken from a body - though officials on the site claim they were trying to identify the bodies.

                          

There was a furious backlash online with many users voicing their distaste at the picture despite any confirmation of what it showed.

Sean Callaghan from Cheshire called it ‘an appalling act of inhumanity’.

Others, however, said rebels may have been looking for an inscription to identify a body.

The image came as a video given to the BBC showed other pro-Russia fighters emptying out the luggage of victims of the tragedy.

Militiamen tramped over the remains of the aircraft searching for its ‘black box’ flight recorders and other clues minutes after it was shot down.
The footage, which the rebels gave to the BBC, provides fresh evidence that they took away material that could have proved crucial for crash investigators.







The militia leader who shot the film, named only as ‘Zhuk’, tried to justify his men’s actions.

‘We looked at their belongings because we were searching for documents. Then we put them in a truck and took them away for sorting,’ he told the BBC.

The controversy comes after leaders blasted pro-Russian rebels working on the site for 'manhandling' the bodies.

Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans told Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko that his country was 'angry' and 'furious' by reports of bodies being dragged around the site in Grabovo, Donetsk.

'We are already shocked by the news we got today of bodies being dragged around, of the site not being treated properly,' he said.

Ukrainian officials accused pro-Russian separatists of taking bodies from the scene of the crash before emergency services personnel began officially collecting them on Saturday.