24 July 2014
Last updated at 02:22 ET
However, in a separate interview a rebel military commander said he was aware rebel fighters had the weapon.
All 298 people on MH17 died when it crashed in east Ukraine last week.
Ukrainian pro-Russian rebels have been widely accused of shooting the plane down. Officials in Kiev said the rebels also shot down two Ukrainian military aircraft on Wednesday.
The Netherlands, where most of the victims were from, received the first bodies in a ceremony on Wednesday.
More bodies are expected to arrive on Thursday.
'Horror movie' Speaking to the BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse in Donetsk, Mr Borodai rejected accusations that his men neglected crash victims' bodies.
He also categorically denied the presence of the Russian-made SA-11 Buk missile system in the crash area. Western intelligence officials say this was the weapon used to shot down the aircraft.
"No, we didn't get a Buk. There were no Buks in the area" he told the BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse.
He initially denied knowledge of photographs allegedly showing the presence of a Buk launcher in the nearby town of Snezhnoe, before saying that such photographs were fake.
Mr Borodai's comments came as Alexander Khodakovsky, commander of the rebel Vostok (East) battalion, said he was aware that a Buk launcher had been on its way from the neighbouring region of Luhansk to Snezhnoe.
"That Buk I know about. I heard about it. I think they [local rebels] sent it back... They probably sent it back in order to remove proof of its presence," he said in an interview with Reuters news agency.
There has been mounting international anger at the delays in recovering the bodies.
But Mr Borodai said international observers told them to leave the bodies to the experts.
"So we wait a day. We wait a second day. A third day... Well, to leave the bodies there any longer, in 30 degree heat, it's absurd. It's simply inhuman. It's a scene from a horror movie," he said.
A spokesman for the monitors, Michael Bociurkiw, denied Mr Borodai's account. He told the BBC: "It is not consistent with our mandate to tell people what to do. We're here to monitor, observe and report."
Buk surface-to-air missile system
Also known as SA-11 Gadfly (or newer SA-17 Grizzly)
Russian-made, mobile, medium range system
Weapons: Four surface-to-air missiles
Missile speed (max): Mach 3
Target altitude (max): 22,000 metres (72,000ft)
Source: Global Security
Grief and respect
In the Netherlands, two military planes carrying the first 40
coffins landed at Eindhoven air base on Wednesday afternoon. They were
met by members of the Dutch royal family, Prime Minister Mark Rutte and
hundreds of victims' relatives.
Dutch churches rang their bells for five minutes before the planes landed, and flags of all the nations affected by the disaster have been flying at half mast. There was also a minute's silence.
The coffins were slowly loaded into a fleet of waiting hearses which then moved off in motorcades.
The hearses left Eindhoven air base in a cortege, passed flags at half mast
Mourners went to Schiphol Airport, from where flight MH17 took off, to lay flowers
Teams of investigators from several countries are still at the crash site
The bodies have been taken to the Korporaal van Oudheusden
barracks south of the city of Hilversum for identification, a process
that could take months.
Separately, the Dutch air safety board said the cockpit voice recorder from flight MH17 had been successfully downloaded and contained "valid data from the flight".
The "black box" flight data recorders are being examined at the headquarters of the UK's Air Accidents Investigation Branch in Farnborough.
Experts have expressed concern that forensic evidence at the crash site could be lost
The US has presented evidence in Washington that officials say points to the use of a Buk missile against the civilian plane.
They said the "most plausible explanation" was that rebels mistook the airliner for another aircraft.
Meanwhile, fighting between Ukrainian government forces and
rebels around the rebel stronghold of Donetsk on Wednesday reportedly
left 16 people dead.
A statement from overall military commander Igor Strelkov posted on a rebel website said he had withdrawn his fighters from the outskirts of Donetsk.
He said they had pulled back and were prepared to defend their positions.
The fighting in eastern Ukraine erupted in April and is believed to have claimed more than 1,000 lives.
MH17 crash: Ukraine rebel leader denies having Buk missile
TO SEE VIDEOS:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28457737
Pro-Russian rebel leader Alexander Borodai denied neglecting bodies at the scene
A
pro-Russian rebel leader in eastern Ukraine has said his forces do not
possess the Buk missile thought to have downed Malaysia airlines flight
MH17.
Alexander Borodai, prime minister of the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), described evidence that showed otherwise as "fake".However, in a separate interview a rebel military commander said he was aware rebel fighters had the weapon.
All 298 people on MH17 died when it crashed in east Ukraine last week.
Ukrainian pro-Russian rebels have been widely accused of shooting the plane down. Officials in Kiev said the rebels also shot down two Ukrainian military aircraft on Wednesday.
The Netherlands, where most of the victims were from, received the first bodies in a ceremony on Wednesday.
More bodies are expected to arrive on Thursday.
'Horror movie' Speaking to the BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse in Donetsk, Mr Borodai rejected accusations that his men neglected crash victims' bodies.
He also categorically denied the presence of the Russian-made SA-11 Buk missile system in the crash area. Western intelligence officials say this was the weapon used to shot down the aircraft.
"Nations united in grief": Annita McVeigh reports on the return of the dead to the Netherlands
He initially denied knowledge of photographs allegedly showing the presence of a Buk launcher in the nearby town of Snezhnoe, before saying that such photographs were fake.
Mr Borodai's comments came as Alexander Khodakovsky, commander of the rebel Vostok (East) battalion, said he was aware that a Buk launcher had been on its way from the neighbouring region of Luhansk to Snezhnoe.
"That Buk I know about. I heard about it. I think they [local rebels] sent it back... They probably sent it back in order to remove proof of its presence," he said in an interview with Reuters news agency.
There has been mounting international anger at the delays in recovering the bodies.
But Mr Borodai said international observers told them to leave the bodies to the experts.
"So we wait a day. We wait a second day. A third day... Well, to leave the bodies there any longer, in 30 degree heat, it's absurd. It's simply inhuman. It's a scene from a horror movie," he said.
A spokesman for the monitors, Michael Bociurkiw, denied Mr Borodai's account. He told the BBC: "It is not consistent with our mandate to tell people what to do. We're here to monitor, observe and report."
Buk surface-to-air missile system
Russian-made, mobile, medium range system
Weapons: Four surface-to-air missiles
Missile speed (max): Mach 3
Target altitude (max): 22,000 metres (72,000ft)
Source: Global Security
Dutch churches rang their bells for five minutes before the planes landed, and flags of all the nations affected by the disaster have been flying at half mast. There was also a minute's silence.
The coffins were slowly loaded into a fleet of waiting hearses which then moved off in motorcades.
The hearses left Eindhoven air base in a cortege, passed flags at half mast
Mourners went to Schiphol Airport, from where flight MH17 took off, to lay flowers
Teams of investigators from several countries are still at the crash site
Separately, the Dutch air safety board said the cockpit voice recorder from flight MH17 had been successfully downloaded and contained "valid data from the flight".
The "black box" flight data recorders are being examined at the headquarters of the UK's Air Accidents Investigation Branch in Farnborough.
Experts have expressed concern that forensic evidence at the crash site could be lost
They said the "most plausible explanation" was that rebels mistook the airliner for another aircraft.
Richard Galpin reports from Kharkiv airport as some of the victims' "long journey home" begins
A statement from overall military commander Igor Strelkov posted on a rebel website said he had withdrawn his fighters from the outskirts of Donetsk.
He said they had pulled back and were prepared to defend their positions.
The fighting in eastern Ukraine erupted in April and is believed to have claimed more than 1,000 lives.
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