Intercepted phone calls show Russia tried to seize MH17's black boxes as part of a cover-up, Ukraine security services claim.

Ukraine officials have released a recording allegedly proving Russia directed separatist rebels to locate and hide the Malaysian Airlines plane's blacks boxes, The Telegraph reports.

The audio, recorded on Friday and released today, allegedly exposes Alexander Khodakovsky, leader of the Vostok (East) battalion of pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine's east, directing men at the crash site, The Telegraph reports.

"Who has the black boxes?" Khodakovsky asks his subordinate.

"We don't have (sic)," the man identified as Oleksiy replies.

When the man at the crash site says he will try and find out who has the black boxes his leader stresses the importance of the task.

"Do it really quick, urgently. Moscow is asking where the boxes are," Khodakovsky says, adding they "must be under our control".

In a second conversation with another man at the crash scene less than an hour later Khodavosky appears to leave no doubt about who the separatists take their orders from.

"I have a request for you," the rebel leader says.

"It is not my request. Our friends from high above are very much interested in the fate of the black boxes. I mean people from Moscow."

Khodakovsky again says that the black boxes cannot fall into the hands of the OSCE and urges the man to do all he can.

"Try to take everything that you find so that it doesn't get into somebody else's hands," he says.

In a third conversation later that night Oleksiy tells his leader his team have found "some small orange barrels", "satellite navigation block is written on it".

"Hide it away," Khodakovsky says.

The recording comes as images emerge of rebels handling what appears to be MH17's black box.

There are also reports that the flight data and voice recorder could have been moved to Donetsk.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has promised to co-operate with outraged world leaders seeking access to the crash site and black boxes.

The Russian leader appears to be trying to appease world fury after US Secretary of State John Kerry said the missile system used to shoot down the jet was "transferred from Russia in the hands of separatists".

In separate phone calls, Putin has promised Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte "full co-operation" in retrieving the bodies and black boxes, while Tony Abbott says the Russian leader had said "all the right things".

The UN Security Council is now considering a resolution demanding that pro-Russian separatists provide "unrestricted access" to the site in rural eastern Ukraine.

Source: The Telegraph