DONETSK, Ukraine?- A senior separatist leader, Aleksander Borodai, handed over black boxes from an airliner downed over eastern Ukraine to Malaysian experts in the city of Donetsk in the early hours of Tuesday.

"Here they are, the black boxes," Borodai told a room packed with journalists at the headquarters of his self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic as an armed rebel placed the boxes on a desk.

Both sides then signed a document, which Borodai said was a protocol to finalise the procedure.

Colonel Mohamed Sakri of Malaysian National Security Council told the meeting the two black boxes were "in good condition".?