Two Ukraine warplanes were shot down by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine on Wednesday, not far from where Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 met it its fate almost one week ago.

Rebels fired antiaircraft missiles at the two fighter jets as they flew over Savur Mogila, a town near the Russian border, Ukrainian armed forces spokesman Aleksey Dmitrashkovsky told The Washington Post.

The only passengers were the pilots, one of whom is believed to have parachuted out of the plane, Ukraine defense officials told the newspaper. There is no word on what happened to the other pilot.

Igor Strelkov, head of the pro-Russian units in the city of Donetsk, confirmed to Reuters they brought down one plane and that the pilot ejected. Donetsk is where Flight MH17 was shot down on July 17 by suspected rebels using a surface-to-air missile. All 298 people on board were killed.

On Wednesday the bodies of the victims, who were mostly from the Netherlands, were loaded onto military plans and flown back home, the Post reported.

Ukrainian troops have since pushed back the rebels from their strongholds in Donetsk and Luhansk.

"In Donetsk, rebels abandoned their positions en masse and went towards the central part of the city," officials in the capital Kiev told Reuters. "It cannot be ruled out that the appearance of such movements could suggest the spread of panic and attempts to leave the place of warfare."

This is not the first time separatists shot down a Ukraine military plane ever since the uprising began in April with Russian supporters calling for independence from Kiev. Nearly 50 servicemen were killed when rebels downed a fighter jet carrying ammunition near the village of Novohannivka in June.

At least 432 people have been killed and over 1,000 have been wounded since conflict began right after Russian President Vladimir Putin annexed Ukraine's eastern peninsula Crimea in late March.