Prime Minister John Key says there is "real anger" over how the crash site of downed Flight MH17 is being handled in eastern Ukraine.
International investigators still only have limited access to the sprawling fields where the plane fell, with the loss of all 298 passengers and crew on board.
Mr Key, along with leaders in Britain, France and Germany, is urging Vladimir Putin to use his influence on the separatists to ensure the victims can be repatriated and international investigators can have full access to collect evidence.
He says the families of the victims deserve to know what happened to their loved ones, "and in fact the world needs to know what's taken place here".
"It's just a tragedy that's hard to put into words, I mean these families are not being treated with the respect that they deserve," Mr Key told TV ONE's Breakfast.
Mr Key says he has spoken with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and says he is feeling real sadness following the deaths of 193 Dutch passengers onboard the downed Malaysia Airlines 777.
Mr Key told TV ONE's Breakfast programme that the loss is the "equivalent of New Zealand losing those kinds of numbers".
He says New Zealand is joining with other likeminded countries in condemning what has taken place, and in calling for a ceasefire in the area, unrestricted access to the site, a full investigation and for those who are responsible be held to account.
Bodies in train
Donetsk rebel leader Alexander Borodai says the bodies recovered from the Flight MH17 crash site would remain in four refrigerated train cars until the arrival of an international aviation delegation.Pro-Moscow rebels have piled bodies from the downed Malaysian jetliner into four refrigerated boxcars in the rebel-held town of Torez, 15 kilometres from the crash site, and cranes at the crash scene have moved big chunks of the Boeing 777, drawing condemnation from Western leaders that the rebels are tampering with the site.
The Dutch Prime Minister says the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe is negotiating with rebel separatists to bring the train containing bodies under Ukrainian government control.
Mr Borodai earlier said he was expecting a team of 12 Malaysian experts and that he was disappointed at how long they had taken to arrive. He insisted that rebels had not interfered with the crash investigation, despite reports to the contrary by international monitors and journalists at the crash site.
He also said the plane's black boxes have been recovered and will be handed over to the International Civil Aviation Organization.
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