Two Ukrainian fighter jets were shot down in a rebel-controlled area of east Ukraine Wednesday in a continuation of hostilities between pro-Russia separatists and the Ukrainian military.

Military officials reported that rebels shot down two Ukrainian Su-25 fighter jets near the village of Dmytrivka. The downing of the planes is a setback for the military, which has meager air power, according to The New York Times. 

While few details are available about the shootings, prior to the downings, a spokesman for Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council in Kiev said the military operation to quell the insurgency in the east was progressing. He said that government troops had recaptured the eastern cities of Popsana and Severondonetsk in Luhansk, and that they are continuing to fight insurgents in the west and north. 

Military officials said rebels blew up a bridge, a railroad bridge and train tracks in Gorlivka, and that fighting along the Russian border continues to rage on.

While Russia says the border is completely sealed, Ukrainian military officials say that the border is not as secure as Moscow claims. Ukrainian forces want to seal the border to prevent Moscow from delivering weapon reinforcements or new fighters into Ukrainian territory. 

Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman from the Ukraine military, said Russia has actually increased its presence on the border with Ukraine, and that there are more instances of shooting across the border. 

Meanwhile, in Kharkiv, a Dutch military plane took the human remains of downed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 flight to the Netherlands. The flight was one of a series of flights to take the remaining bodies of the 298 passengers and crew back to the Netherlands.

Everyone on board the flight was killed when the plane was shot down by a Russian-made missile last week. 

Before the plane's departure from the Hercules transport at the Kharkiv International Airport, Ukrainian officials and foreign diplomats gave a solemn tribute to the dead, in addition to expressing anger at the deadly mistake. 

"This is a tragedy of unspeakable proportions," an Australian representative, Angus Houston, said at the gathering. 

"We are today sending off innocents who were murdered," said Ukrainian vice prime minister Volodymyr Groysman. "Those who are guilty for this terrorist act will be punished."

Ukraine believes that pro-Russian rebels are culpable for the tragedy. They believe that Russia is also to blame, as they claim that Russian military personnel launched the missile, believing the plane to be a Ukrainian military jet.  

Officials from the Kiev Military Academy carried four wooden coffins onto the plane, which had 16 bodies on board in total. A second plane from Australia is scheduled to repatriate 24 bodies from Ukraine to Australia Wednesday. 

A representative from the Dutch government called for patience to accurately assess what occured. He said the identification of the bodies will be a long process. 

While foreign diplomats at the ceremony called for the perpetrators to be brought to justice, they did not explicitly blame Russia. 

Some at the ceremony protested Russian aggression. According to the NYT, one protester, 39-year-old Alexandra Kharchenko, said Putin should be brought before an international tribunal, as she believes he encouraged arming the pro-Russia rebels.

Yet, the Kremlin and the separatists have denied any involvement in the downing of the plane. 

The bodies were held by rebels who controlled the crash sites for days, but were finally delivered to Kharkiv by train Tuesday, in addition to voice recordings from the plane. 

"Today your journey home begins. It will still be a long journey. We have started a process that will take time," said Hans Docter, the Dutch representative, according to the NYT. "We have to do this right. The eyes of the world are upon us."

The British Department for Transportation said Wednesday that the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder were delivered to the department's Air Accidents Investigation Branch by Dutch investigators. 

Representatives from the Dutch Safety Board were asked to lead the crash investigation. They received the recording devices, which are called "black boxes," from Malaysian officials, and delivered them to England Wednesday. 

Most people on the downed flight were from the Netherlands, which is why the country took formal control over the investigation Tuesday. 

Ukraine and Malaysia would normally be the countries to lead the investigation, according to international rules. However, both governments allowed the Netherlands to take over the investigation.