An adviser to the Ukrainian interior minister, Anton Heraschenko, has claimed that the Buk surface-to-air missile system, from which a missile could have been launched at a Malaysian plane in Donetsk region, was removed to Russia last night, and militants are planning to hand over the plane's black box flight recording equipment to "FSB curators."

"According to the latest reports, international-class terrorist Strelkov, or Girkin, came to Snizhne at night to resolve the situation with the downed Malaysian Boeing. The Buk system, from which a missile was launched, was removed at night to Russia, where it will most likely be destroyed," he wrote on his page on Facebook.

Heraschenko said that there was information from Ukrainian intelligence that "the black boxes found by terrorists at the scene will be handed over today at a checkpoint in Luhansk region to their FSB curators."

Earlier, he said that illegal armed groups had the Buk surface-to-air missile systems and that one of them was seen in the center of the town of Snizhne, Donetsk region, near which the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 fell.

Representatives of illegal armed groups had previously confirmed that they had Buk anti-aircraft missile systems, which are capable of hitting aerial targets at high altitude.