Russian military plane crashes with 65 Ukrainian prisoners on board, Moscow says

According to several Russian officials, the aircraft was shot down by Ukrainian missiles. All passengers were killed.

A terrible crash. A Russian Il-76 military transport plane carrying 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war crashed on Wednesday January 24 in the Belgorod region, bordering Ukraine, the Russian Defense Ministry said, cited by the country’s agencies. According to Moscow, these prisoners were being transported for exchange with Ukraine. Six crew members and three attendants were also present on the plane. “Everyone on board was killed”assured the local governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, on Telegram.

“An Air Force commission went to the site of the plane crash to establish the causes of the disaster”, added the Russian Defense Ministry. Images circulating on social networks show a device falling almost steeply, before causing a large explosion on the ground, accompanied by flames and black smoke. The Russian authorities have not given any indication at this stage as to the fate of the plane’s occupants.

Another plane turns around

Shortly after the crash, Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the Russian Duma, the lower house of parliament, accused kyiv of shooting down the plane.. “They killed their own soldiers in the air. Their mothers, their children were waiting for them”, he proclaimed to the Russian deputies. And to add: “They shot down our pilots who were carrying out a humanitarian mission (…) with American and German missiles.”

The head of the parliamentary defense committee, Andrei Kartapolov, also claimed that the plane was shot down by three Patriot or Iris-T missiles, Western air defense systems supplied to Ukraine. According to him, another plane carrying 80 Ukrainian prisoners was flying at the time of the accident and turned around.

Ukraine has not yet reacted to this crash. But the media RBK Ukraine and Ukrainskaya Pravda, citing sources within the army, claim that the aircraft was in fact carrying S-300 missiles, a model used to strike Ukrainian territory.