Prime Minster Tony Abbott has lashed the ''absolutely shambolic'' situation at the site of the downed Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, as he dispatched former defence force chief Angus Houston as his personal envoy in Kiev and began the sombre task of speaking to the families of the 37 Australian dead.
Mr Abbott also confirmed the federal government was considering declaring the MH17 disaster a terrorist attack, which would trigger payments of up to $75,000 to the families of Australian victims.
The United Nations Security Council was headed towards a crunch vote overnight on a resolution that is expected to call for immediate access to the crash site and demand an independent investigation into the tragedy.
Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop is in New York leading Australian lobbying efforts ahead of the vote, which comes as Mr Abbott joined other world leaders in ratcheting up pressure on Russia.
Australia would view a Russian veto of the Australian-sponsored United Nations resolution to secure the crash site ''very badly'', he said. ''We want to retrieve the bodies, we want to investigate the site, and we want to punish the guilty,'' Mr Abbott said.
''At the moment the site is under the control of the Russian-backed rebels and given the almost certain culpability of the Russian-backed rebels in the downing of the aircraft having those people in control of the site is a little like leaving criminals in control of a crime scene.
''My sense is that all of the leaders that I have spoken to were in a much firmer and sterner mood now than they were 48 hours ago … it does look more like a garden clean-up than a forensic investigation.'' Russia, for its part, signalled late on Monday that it would agree to the resolution, subject to the wording.
Reuters news agency reported the debate centred on whether the resolution referred to the ''downing'' of the Malaysia Airlines flight or its ''shooting down''.
Mr Abbott spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin in the early hours of Monday and he had said ''all the right things'' - but ''the challenge now is to hold the president to his word'', Mr Abbott said.
In his first public comments on the tragedy, Mr Putin said no country should use the tragedy for its own ends or ''to achieve their 'narrowly selfish' political goals''.
Mr Putin called for a group of experts to work at the site under the guidance of the International Civil Aviation Organisation, which governs the standards of crash-site investigations.
In addition to reaching out to the families of Australians who died, Mr Abbott called world leaders including US President Barack Obama, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko and British Prime Minister David Cameron.
Australia has deployed 45 officials to help the efforts.
A C-17 military transport plane is on stand-by to bring back the bodies of the dead Australians, some of whom may currently be held in a train in rebel-occupied Ukraine that is being prevented from leaving.
