DONETSK, Ukraine (REUTERS) - Rebels in eastern Ukraine have not touched the site where a Malaysian airliner crashed but are worried about the humanitarian situation there as bodies decompose in the heat, separatist leader Aleksander Borodai said on Saturday.

"Bodies of innocent people are lying out in the heat. We reserve the right, if the delay continues ... to begin the process of taking away the bodies. We ask the Russian Federation to help us with this problem and send their experts," said Borodai, prime minister of the self-styled Donetsk People's Republic.

He told a news conference that he did not know why experts had yet to arrive at the site. "Maybe this is because Ukraine or the Ukrainian authorities are not interested in an objective investigation."