reunited with their remains. tom costello starts off our coverage tonight from our washington newsroom. tom, good evening. >> reporter: hi, brian. president obama insisted today the russian-backed rebels preserve the crash scene and allow international investigators access to the area including a very small u.s. team now headed to kiev. across six square miles in a remote area of eastern ukraine, russian-backed rebels have been picking through the scorched wreckage of the malaysian passenger plane shot out of the sky without warning. in a nearby sunflower field, the bodies of passengers, their passports and possessions including tour books for planned vacation. today, president obama said the u.s. has very specific information about what happened to flight 17. >> evidence indicates that the plane was shot down by a surface-to-air missile that was launched from an area that is controlled by russian-backed separatists inside of ukraine. >> reporter: today, this haunting instagram video...