Terrified civilians fled as intense clashes Monday between Ukrainian government troops and pro-Russian rebels left at least three people dead on the outskirts of the insurgent bastion of Donetsk.

Separatist fighters closed off the roads in the area around the train station and airport on the edge of the city as local residents escaped shelling and rocket fire in minibuses and on foot.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott Monday hit out at the "shambolic" situation at the MH17 crash site as he demanded Russian President Vladimir Putin back up assurances with action.

Abbott and Putin spoke by telephone overnight in their first conversation since the Malaysia Airlines plane, carrying 298 people, crashed in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, apparently shot down by pro-Russian rebels with a surface-to-air missile.

Pensioner Oleksandr had just stepped out of his house in eastern Ukraine to say hello to a neighbor when a mortar shell landed at his feet. 

He died several minutes later, with his hand blown off and his stomach torn open.

British Prime Minister David Cameron on Sunday told Russia's Vladimir Putin the shooting down of the MH17 passenger plane was "totally unacceptable" and appeared to be the work of Russian separatists.

"The evidence suggested that pro-Russian separatists were responsible and the Prime Minister made clear that if Russia wants to put the blame elsewhere they would need to present compelling and credible evidence," a press release about the phonecall from Downing Street said.

Australia has circulated a draft U.N. Security Council resolution demanding that pro-Russian separatists provide "full and unfettered access" to the crash site of the downed Malaysian jet in eastern Ukraine, diplomats said Sunday.

The document -- that could be put to a vote as early as Monday -- also calls on everyone in the region to fully cooperate in an international probe of the incident, according to a copy obtained by Agence France Presse.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said in comments published Sunday that Russia was likely behind the downing of a Malaysian airliner as such an operation takes professionals and not "drunken gorillas".

"Very professional personnel is needed to find targets and fire this missile," he told a German newspaper about the suspected shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine which claimed 298 lives.

Families of Malaysians aboard Flight MH17 urged authorities Sunday to bring back the remains of their loved ones amid concerns over access to the crash site in strife-torn eastern Ukraine.

The Malaysia Airlines jet is believed to have been shot down by a surface-to-air missile on its way from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur with 298 people aboard.

Scores of bodies recovered at the crash site of Malaysian plane MH17 in Ukraine have been removed, an AFP reporter on the scene said on Sunday.

Pro-Russian rebels who had been guarding the main impact site also appeared to have left, with about a dozen stretchers, paper masks and plastic gloves abandoned at the scene.

The missile system used to shoot down a Malaysian airliner was handed to pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine by Moscow, the top U.S. diplomat said Sunday, as the West warned Russia it could face further EU sanctions if it did not press pro-Kremlin separatists to allow unfettered access to the crash site of flight MH17.

"It's pretty clear that this is a system that was transferred from Russia in the hands of separatists," U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told CNN, saying that a sophisticated SA-11 system had been used in Thursday's crash.

Top U.S. diplomat John Kerry told his Russian counterpart Saturday that Washington was "deeply concerned" that international investigators were being denied access to a passenger jet's crash site in Ukraine.

President Barack Obama and other world leaders have expressed outrage and demanded Russia's full cooperation with what is becoming a monumentally challenging probe into the shooting down of a Kuala Lumpur-bound Malaysia Airlines flight from Amsterdam with 298 people from a dozen countries on board.