Ukrainian woman relives horrific moment body of MH17 victim fell through her ceiling

The corpse's delicate, manicured hands have lingered in Ina Tipunova's memory longer than she would have wished.

She was catching up with old friends in the sleepy village of Rozsypne when the missile struck the Boeing 777. 

The deafening explosion silenced them as they watched fire, smoke and debris fill the horizon. 'It looked like confetti falling through from the sky,' she said. 

Bodies rained down too. Many of the 298 victims of the MH17 disaster landed in fields, some in village streets, others in gardens. 

But in a freakish twist of fate, one smashed through the corrugated roof of Ina's house. It became an eduring image of the horrific fate of the passenger jet.

She returned home to find the young woman's naked body sprawled on her kitchen floor, crooked and bloodless.

One year on, as the first anniversary of the Malaysia Airlines catastrophe approaches and the war in eastern Ukrainian continues to claim the lives of soldiers and citizens alike, Ina spoke of the day that bound her with this lifeless, nameless stranger and thrust her obscure, little town onto the global stage.

'I don't why this happened and why she came through my roof. Perhaps it's fate,' Ina said, sheltering from the sun beneath her garden's canopy of grapevines. 

'Every other house was without a body. There were bodies on roads and some in people's gardens, but nothing like this.'

Inside her ramshackle kitchen, the ceiling's splintered hole remains. Beneath the pots, pans and empty shelves, all that remains of the intruder is a faint, white stain of chlorine.

'I was given some chemicals to clean the floor afterwards,' Ina said, pointing to the ghostly mark. 'I remember she had very beautiful, manicured hands. Her nails were painted pink. I haven't forgotten.'

The widowed mother-of-two shrugged off any suggestion that the incident had traumatised her. 'I lost my first son 10 years ago in a coalmine collapse. After that, nothing really could shock me. This hasn't given me nightmares.' 

But she does think about the girl most days.

'I want to meet her relatives to see pictures of her when she was younger, just to know something about her,' she said. 'But I know nothing. Nothing at all – only that she was from Asia.

'Maybe her family would like to meet me too, to speak with me and see the place where she died. For them, it might help finish the story.'

Next Friday, disparate communities across the world – from locals in villages around the crash site to political leaders in the home countries of the 298 crew and passengers – will unite in memory of the tragedy on July 17, 2014. Church services will be held in surrounding villages, and the Australian, Malaysian and Dutch governments have announced plans for their own ceremonies.