A secret deal by Prime Minister Najib Razak to secure the release of the remains of passengers of downed Malaysia Airlines (MAS) Flight MH17 ended successfully yesterday, accomplishing what days of intense international pressure by global leaders failed to do.

A train carrying nearly 300 bodies reached the Kiev-controlled city of Kharkiv in the evening, hours after the plane’s two black boxes – one containing the flight data recorder and the other the cockpit voice recorder – were handed over to Malaysian officials.

The breakthrough came five days after the jet was purportedly hit by an anti-aircraft missile over war-torn eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board.

… Dr Oh Ei Sun of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore said Malaysia was merely being pragmatic.

“It’s a measure of peaceful last resort in an abnormal circumstance,” he told The Straits Times yesterday.