Militant groups of self-proclaimed Donbas People’s Republic might already be in possession of at least two Malaysia Airlines Boeing’s flight recorders and are keen to get ahold of all the evidence from its crash site, citing “interest” from Moscow. The conversation shows that the separatists are intent on obstructing an international investigation under way.

The alleged intercepted phone conversations are between Oleksandr Khodakovskyi, commander of the Kremlin-backed separatists’ Vostok Battalion and two militants identified only by their first names. The conversations show that the militants working at the site of deadly air crash of Malaysia Airlines Fight MH17 are given a task of getting ahold of all the evidence they can locate and keeping it away from anyone else. The ill-fated flight from Amsterdam-Kuala Lumpur flight on July 17 crashed after a missile struck it from separatist-held territory, killing almost 300 civilians