MH17 Crash: Rebels Hand Over Black Boxes

Rebel leaders in eastern Ukraine have handed over the black boxes from flight MH17 to Malaysian experts.

As an armed rebel placed the boxes on a desk, Aleksander Borodai told a packed room at the headquarters of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic: "Here they are, the black boxes."

Both sides then signed a document, which the rebel leader said was to finalise the hand over.

The two flight data recorders from the downed Malaysia Airlines plane are "in good condition", according to Malaysian Colonel Mohamed Sakri.

"I can see that the black boxes are intact, although a bit damaged," he said, extending his thanks to "His Excellency Mr Borodai" for passing them on.

Ukraine's deputy prime minister, Volodymyr Groysman, has claimed that pro-Russian rebels have tampered with the black boxes.

Russia has called for the investigation into the shooting down of the plane to be led by the "international community" and not Ukraine, after yet more accusations were traded between Moscow and Kiev or who is to blame.

Moscow's ambassador to Malaysia, Lyudmila Vorobyeva told a news conference: "This situation is quite unique, the area is a war zone. I think the international community should be flexible about that and act in a way acceptable to all sides."

She added that audio recordings of rebels admitting shooting down the plane are "fake" and a "compilation of different conversations".

On Monday, a train carrying the remains of 282 of the victims left the station where it was being guarded by armed separatists.

The refrigerated wagons were filmed leaving Torez, and will be taken to the city of Kharkiv, some 186 miles (300km) northwest.

There they will be handed over to Dutch officials before being flown to the Netherlands.

It was announced at the press conference that a ceasefire within a six mile (10km) radius around the crash site would be put in place so international investigators can access the area where the jet was shot down last week with 298 people on board.

Fighting between pro-Ukrainian groups and pro-Russian separatists flared in Donetsk on Monday, some 40 miles (60km) from the crash site.

Health officials said four people were killed in the clashes, while rebel military commander Igor Strelkov said up to 12 of his men died in the fighting.

As the diplomatic fallout from the disaster continues, EU foreign ministers will meet on Tuesday to discuss imposing new sanctions on Russia.