I was looking for a parachute and found a little girl' Fighter ADMITS shooting down MH17

BLAME: A Russian rebel has sensationally admitted to shooting down MH17 and killing the 298 people on board [REUTERS/GETTY]

The unidentified militant, who is currently fighting in eastern Ukraine, said rebels fired a missile at the Boeing 777 – killing all 298 people on board – after mistaking it for a Ukrainian cargo plane.
The separatists only realised their fatal error when they searched the crash site and discovered the bodies of women and children.
"We shot down a Kiev plane, our superiors told us," the rebel told Corriere Della Sera.
"We thought we were looking for bailed-out Ukrainian pilots but instead we found dead civilians.

VIOLENT: Russia rebels have been accused of blocking international access to the MH17 crash site [GETTY] 

"All those poor people with baggage that certainly wasn't military… I was looking for a parachute and found the body of a little girl."
Until now both Moscow and the separatist forces it supports have denied downing the passenger plane as it flew from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur a week ago.
Many Russian officials have suggested Ukraine staged the attack to smear the rebels who are seeking to break away from Kiev.
The Italian newspaper spoke to the 31-year-old fighter at Torez railway station, where the bodies of those killed in the crash were stored before being transported to the city of Kharkiv.

ARRIVAL: The first bodies arrived back in the Netherlands on Wednesday [EPA]

After the plane had been hit by the surface-to-air missile the rebel's unit were told by commanders to head to the crash site with their weapons and "plenty of ammunition".
They were reportedly told white objects, thought to be parachutes, were seen dropping to earth.
Commanders ordered the separatists to prepare for battle with the plane's survivors, still thinking they had downed a Ukrainian jet.
"All of a sudden, I saw scraps of material in a clearing," the rebel added.

ANGRY: Russian leader Vladimir Putin has denied any involvement in the tragedy [REUTERS]

"Underneath I found the body of a little girl, who can't have been more than five. She was lying face down. It was awful.
"That was when I realised it was a civilian plane. Not a military one.
"And all these dead people were civilians. A heap of burst suitcases confirmed it."
Meanwhile an international team in Hampshire has already begun to analyse MH17's cockpit recordings.