Separatists shot down two Ukrainian military jets in the east of the country on Wednesday, Defense Ministry spokesman Oleksiy Dmytrashkivskiy said. According to preliminary information, both pilots managed to eject.

"We have information about downed fighter planes," Dmytrashkivskiy told the Interfax Ukraine news agency on Monday. "The circumstances of what happened are currently being clarified." Though the pilots managed to escape their planes, Dmytrashkivskiy said they most likely would have landed in territory controlled by "illegal armed groups."

According to Dmytrashkivskiy, the planes went down about 25 kilometres (15 miles) from the crash site of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, in which 298 people were killed last week. That crash sent waves of grief around the world, especially in the Netherlands, where the flight departed from, and in its intended destination, Malaysia.

Ukraine and other nations have pressed the separatists who control the crash site to allow an unimpeded investigation, something Russian President Vladimir Putin said he would use his influence to achieve. On Tuesday, US officials announced that they believed a missile had brought down the passenger flight.

Some European politicians have suggested a cover-up, and EU foreign ministers threatened sanctions if it turns out Russia was involved. However, some German businesses have warned that that could damage their bottom line.

Local health officials say that fighting since the removal of Ukraine's previous president in February has led to the deaths of 432 people and left 1,015 injured.

mkg/tj (Reuters, AFP, dpa, AP)