4.26pm BST

Harriet Salem reports that Alexander Borodai, the leader of Donetsk People’s Republic, confirmed that the rebels had removed 196 bodies from the MH17 crash site to Torez, where they are being stored in railway carriages with refrigeration capabilities.

Borodai, a Russian citizen, said that the human remains were moved because it was “inhumane” to leave them “lying out in the heat to decompose”.



In Kharkiv, 190 miles from Torez, preparation of a disaster crisis centre sparked speculation that a deal had been struck to move the bodies to the Ukrainian held territory imminently. Vasil Homa, who runs the centre, said it was ready to receive the victims' remains, and hotels in the city were ready to receive relatives for free.



However, Borodai was adamant that the train where the bodies were being stored would not move from Torez until an “international delegation” had observed them. “The bodies will not go anywhere until experts arrive” he said.



He said that a team of 81 international experts, including 20 Malaysian specialists, would “probably arrive tomorrow evening”. The rebel leader said he did not know why the international community had not responded quicker to the incident. “I cannot understand why the experts cannot come here immediately, we are not an island, it should be easy for them to come here,” he said.



Officials from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe have been hampered by the rebels in their bid to access the crash site. Despite two trips to the scene in the past two days the 30-strong team of officials have only been allowed access to small parts of the area by the heavily armed rebels who stand guard in the fields around the wreckage.



Borodai also said that rebels had found “technical elements” that are believed to be the black boxes. They will be “stored in a safe place” in Donetsk until they can be handed over to “international experts,” he said.



Ukrainian security forces have released an audio of what is alleged to be a series of intercepted phone call between the Oleksandr Serhiyovych, the leader of rebel fighter unit Vostok Battalion, and another rebel, identified only as Andriy. The conversations suggest that the rebels may already be in possession of up to three of the boxes containing vital clues about the final moments of the flight, but Serhiyovych stresses the urgency of the gunmen on-the-ground stepping up the search.



“The boxes must be under our control,” says the voice purported to be Serhiyobych. “Our friends from high above are very interested in the fate of the ‘black boxes’. I mean people from Moscow”.



Questioned about whether he was in contact with Russian authorities a tight-lipped Borodai said only: “Officially, no”.

