The Russian Defense Ministry said Ukrainian prisoners were on board the plane.
A military transport plane that the Russian Defense Ministry said was carrying 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war crashed Wednesday in Russia’s Belgorod region, close to the border with Ukraine. All passengers were killed, according to the region’s governor.
Russian news agency RIA Novosti, citing the Russian Defense Ministry, said the prisoners of war were being transported to the border region for a prisoner exchange.
Footage of the crash posted on social media showed a plane falling from the sky in a snowy rural area and a huge ball of fire emerging where the plane apparently hit the ground.
Firefighters, ambulances and police rushed to the crash site in Belgorod’s Korochansky district, state news agency Tass said, citing a local emergency services official.
Two senior Russian lawmakers claimed, without providing evidence, that the plane was shot down by missiles launched by Ukrainian forces.
Shortly before the crash, Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of Belgorod, declared on his Telegram channel that a “missile alert” had been triggered in the region and advised residents to take shelter.
Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said it was looking into the accident, but did not immediately provide information. Instead, he warned against the dissemination of“unverified information”.
“We emphasize that the enemy is actively carrying out special information operations against Ukraine with the aim of destabilizing Ukrainian society”he said in a statement published on Telegram.
A special military commission was on its way to the crash site, according to the Russian Defense Ministry, which said that in addition to the prisoners of war, three people accompanying them and six members of the crew were on board.
At his morning news conference, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he could not comment on the accident because he did not have enough information about it.
The aircraft is designed to transport troops, cargo, military equipment and weapons. It can carry up to 225 troops, according to the Russian military export agency.
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