The events of the previous day are etched in the memories of families and friends of those who died when Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down from pro-Russian rebel controlled territory over eastern Ukraine.

Australia's foreign policy white paper, released Thursday, also revealed the event remains alive in the government's thinking, making special mention of the incident amid other comments signalling it would "work with partners to resist Russia's conduct when it is inimical to global security."

Thinking back on the immediate aftermath, when DFAT dispatched him to Ukraine within hours of the tragedy, Mr Stanier remembers the time as one of massive pressure.

"For one thing, it's hard to imagine a scenario where a plane gets shot down carrying Australians over a war zone," he said.

"If we had practised that scenario, we would have said it's so unlikely to happen."

Mr Stanier and four other staff arrived in Kiev tasked with recovering the bodies of the 38 Australian residents killed.

In the scramble to leave Australia, a psychologist told him to avoid reading the personal stories of those who died.

The crisis response team, a product of a DFAT rethink of its approach to overseas emergencies following the Arab Spring uprisings, had multiple questions to resolve.

It was unclear where the bodies were, who had them and how Australia could get them back.

"We were really under pressure, were working very fast, not getting a lot of sleep," Mr Stanier said, emphasising that Australia mounted a whole-of-government response to the crisis.

Working from a hotel in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, he organised logistics for the recovery and relayed information back to Canberra as the government tried to make sense of the incident.

Soon the bodies of Australians who died were brought on two daily flights for four days from Kharkim to Eindhoven, the Netherlands, which had the most citizens among the 298 people killed.

As people from other Australian government agencies flew in and the bodies arrived in the Netherlands, Mr Stanier's role changed and he began work on the next phase of the response, working to gain access for Australian Federal Police officers to the crash site.

The white paper, Australia's first foreign policy blueprint in 14 years, outlines a government commitment to building the crisis management system that sent DFAT staff to Ukraine in the aftermath of MH17.

Mr Stanier says departmental support helped him avoid acquiring psychological scars from the time. But long after he returned to DFAT's offices in Canberra, Mr Stanier still hasn't read about the lives of Australia's victims.

While he could not imagine the pain of losing a family member or friend in the incident, Mr Stanier said he knew he would get some assurance that the government was on the ground getting their body home.

"For me, this was the most meaningful and fulfilling work I've done, and the most difficult as well," he said.