In what it called a heinous act of terrorism that claimed the lives of 74 people, Russia charged Ukraine on Wednesday of intentionally shooting down a Russian military transport plane transporting 65 captured Ukrainian soldiers to a prisoner exchange.
Six Russian crew members and three Russian soldiers were on board the Ilyushin Il-76 military transport plane when it was shot down close to the Ukrainian border, according to the Russian ministry of defense.
As per the ministry statement, “the Ukrainian leadership was well aware that Ukrainian servicemen would be transported by military transport aircraft to the Belgorod airfield today to be exchanged, in accordance with established practice.”
It stated, “This event was to take place in the afternoon at the Kolotilovka checkpoint on the Russian-Ukrainian border, according to an earlier agreement.”
“The true nature of the Ukrainian leadership has been exposed by this terrorist act. It didn’t care about the lives of its own people.”
“A barbaric act,” according to Russia’s foreign ministry, was the shooting down.
Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak told Reuters: “Remarks will follow a little after this. It will take time to make all the data clear.”
Video appeared on the Telegram messaging app, confirmed by Reuters, and was shared by Baza, a channel associated with Russian security services. It showed a big airplane crashing into the ground close to Yablonovo village in the Belgorod region before exploding in a massive fireball.
A prisoner exchange was scheduled for Wednesday, according to Andriy Yusov, the spokesperson for Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence, who also stated that “it’s not taking place at the moment” on Radio Svoboda.
A request for comment from Reuters was not immediately answered by the Ukrainian ministry of defense. According to the Interfax-Ukraine news agency, it stated that it would share any trustworthy information it became aware of as soon as it became available.
The Ukrainian media outlet Ukrainska Pravda later amended the story to state that information had not been verified by other sources after initially citing military sources to claim that Kyiv had shot down the plane because it was carrying S-300 missiles.
Retired general and Russian parliamentarian Andrei Kartapolov stated in a TV interview with the SHOT
The Russian Ministry of Defense claimed that at the moment the plane was shot down, its radar operators had seen the launch of two missiles from Ukraine.
Kartapolov, who maintains close ties to the Russian defense ministry, claimed that three missiles, made in Germany or the United States, brought down the aircraft. He said that since the flight had been arranged with the Ukrainians, it had not been escorted by Russian fighter aircraft.
Should the details turn out to be accurate, this would be the deadliest incident of its kind within Russia’s officially recognized borders in the nearly two years of the conflict.
Details about the passengers on board the downed aircraft were not immediately verified by Reuters, but since Russia started what it refers to as its “special military operation” in
(Reuters)
