Observers from the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe) said on Friday they had been blocked from proper access to the site of the crashed flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine.

Monitors said they did not have the freedom of movement they needed and that some of the separatist gunmen appeared intoxicated while others would not let the team look at the wreckage of the passenger jet.

Investigators returned to Donetsk on Friday evening and will try to revisit the area on Saturday.

Meanwhile the Kyiv government has accused separatists – which it calls “terrorists” – of stealing credit cards from the dead bodies.

Anton Geraschenko, an advisor to the Ukraine Interior Minister, said:

“Terrorists ransacked belongings of the victims, they took all the money, all the jewels. And what is very important -they took passengers’ credit cards, and now via their intercepted talks we can hear they want to withdraw money from these cards. They’re considering the possibility of transferring the cards to the Russian Federation to withdraw money. We ask all the victims’ relatives to block the cards so that their money can’t be used to strengthen terrorism”.

Moscow has accused Kyiv of carrying out “information warfare” against Russia.