Russian authorities are seeking to establish the source of the publication of photos showing disfigured bodies from the 2010 plane crash that killed then Polish president Lech Kaczynski and other top state officials.

Several Russian websites have posted graphic images of bodies scattered at the crash site and even what appears to be the remains of the Polish president on a metal gurney. The pictures were later published on websites in Ukraine, Germany, and the United States.

Poland has demanded that the Russian authorities launch a probe into the matter and punish those responsible for the leaked images, claiming that the photos could have been taken only by Russian security personnel who had access to the site shortly after the crash.

“We have taken measures to withdraw the pictures from media and establish the identities of those who took the pictures and provided them for publishing,” spokesman for Russia's Federal Investigative Committee, Vladimir Markin, said on Wednesday.

“We are also trying to determine the motives behind this,” Markin said.

He added that the leaked photos were not part of archives related to the investigation of the crash.

The Tu-154 plane carrying a delegation of senior Polish officials crashed in heavy fog as it attempted to land at an airfield near the western Russian city of Smolensk on April 10, 2010. There were no survivors in the crash that killed eight crew and 88 passengers.

The Moscow-based Interstate Aviation Committee (MAK) put the blame on the Polish crew in its probe into the accident. Poland, which carried out a separate investigation, partially blamed Russian air controllers for the tragedy.