A senior Ukrainian separatist leader has handed over the flight recorders from the airliner downed over eastern Ukraine last Thursday.

Malaysian experts took receipt of the so- called black boxes in the rebel held city of Donetsk.

The handover is a long awaited vital step in the international investigation into the disaster.

“I can see that the black box is intact even though a little bit damaged, but in a good condition,” said Malaysian investigator Colonel Mohamad Sakri.

Earlier two trains carrying the remains of flight MH17 victims left the rebel held town of Torez.

So far 282 bodies of the nearly 300 people killed when the Malaysia Airlines jet was brought down by a suspected missile, have been found.

Five days after the crash OSCE monitors still have only limited access to the crash site.

The trains are expected to travel via Donetsk to the Ukrainian government controlled town of Kharkiv.

Two thirds of the victims were Dutch citizens and the Netherlands is calling for the bodies to be sent there.

Our reporter Maria Korenyuk is in Kharkiv:

“The victims’ bodies should be transferred here – to this tank plant in Kharkiv. A special hangar where the bodies will be kept has already been prepared. However it’s still unknown where the procedure of victims’ identification will take place. The possibility of transferring the bodies to the Netherlands is still under discussion.”