The Russian Defense Ministry says the plane that crashed Wednesday morning in Russia’s Belgorod region was carrying 65 Ukrainian prisoners, none of whom survived. Moscow accuses kyiv of having shot down the aircraft.
A Russian military transport plane crashed in a border region near Ukraine on Wednesday. Moscow, which accuses Kyiv of having shot it down, says its 74 passengers were killed, including 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war intended for exchange. Russia provided no evidence and Ukraine did not immediately confirm or deny the information.
Posted on social media, the video of the accident was filmed in the border region of Belgorod, Russia. A plane falls from the sky in a snowy rural area. A huge ball of fire forms where the craft apparently hits the ground.
Mutual accusations
Since the start of Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine, the two countries have exchanged mutual accusations, while the facts often prove difficult to establish, both due to the constraints linked to a zone of war and that because of the close control of information on each side.
The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that the Il-76 transport plane was carrying 65 prisoners of war, a crew of six and three Russian servicemen. Russian radars recorded the launch of two missiles from the Ukrainian region of Kharkiv, bordering Belgorod.
Hours after the accident, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces made no mention of the accident in a statement. He added, however, that Ukraine was targeting Russian military transport planes suspected of launching missiles, particularly near the border.
Airspace at the center of the fighting
In May 2023, Russia lost two warplanes and two helicopters in its own airspace in a single day. Kyiv authorities initially denied any involvement, before saying they had used Patriot missiles to hit the plane.
The Kharkiv and Belgorod regions have long been the center of fighting, including airstrikes with missiles and drones.
The Russian military said the prisoners of war were being transported to the region for a prisoner exchange when the plane was shot down shortly before noon local time. The Il-76 is designed to transport up to 225 troops, cargo, military equipment and weapons, according to Russia’s military export agency.
The GRU, Ukraine’s military intelligence service, confirmed that an exchange was to take place, but said it had no information on the identities of the plane’s passengers. Moscow did not request that specific airspace be preserved for a certain period of time, as was the case in previous exchanges, Kyiv said.
Security Council meeting Thursday
At a press conference at the United Nations, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council later on Wednesday, saying that he had “no fear” that the international community would believe Moscow’s allegations.
But the UN Security Council has already planned a meeting to hear from many countries that were unable to speak at Tuesday’s ministerial meeting on the war between Israel and Hamas, and France, which assures the Council presidency, indicated that the emergency meeting would be held on Thursday.