Russia Accuses Ukraine of Deliberately Shooting Down a Russian Military Transport Plane Carrying 65 Ukrainian POWs, Killing 74 People
Russia offered no evidence to support its accusation and Ukraine did not immediately confirm or deny hitting the plane.
(Moscow, Russia) After a Russian military transport plane crashed this morning in a border region of Russia near Ukraine, Moscow accused Kyiv of shooting it down, saying that all 74 people aboard the aircraft were killed, including 65 captured Ukrainian soldiers (prisoners of war) headed for a swap.
Photo of a Russian Ilyushin Il-76 military transport plane courtesy of BBC News.
Russia offered no evidence to confirm its accusation and Ukraine did not immediately confirm or deny it, according to AP News.
The Russian defence ministry said that a prisoner exchange was to have taken place this afternoon (January 24th) at the Kolotilovka border checkpoint and Ukraine knew a transport plane carrying captured Ukrainian soldiers was expected at the Belgorod airfield, according to Reuters.
Ukrainian military intelligence, however, said that Kyiv was not asked to ensure air space security on Wednesday around the Belgorod area in southern Russia as had been the case during previous prisoner of war swaps with Moscow, according to Reuters.
In a post on X this afternoon, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that all facts about the incident must be established, “given that the aircraft crashed in Russian territory that is beyond our control.”
“It is clear that the Russians are playing with the lives of Ukrainian prisoners of war, the feelings of their relatives, and the emotions of our society,” reads Zelensky’s post.
Video of the crash on social media from the Belgorod border region of Russia showed a plane falling from the sky in rural area, followed by the eruption of a huge ball of fire.
The Russian defence ministry said six Russian crew members and three Russian soldiers had been on the fallen Ilyushin Il-76 military transport plane, according to Reuters. The Il-76 is designed to carry up to 225 troops, cargo, military equipment and weapons, according to Russia’s military export agency, per AP News.
In a post on Telegram, Ukranian military intelligence said Russia’s accusations could be "a planned action to destabilise the situation in Ukraine and weaken international support for our state," according to Reuters.
According to an aforementioned Reuters article, the Ukrainian military said it would continue to destroy Russian military transport aircraft it believed were carrying missiles with which to strike Ukraine, and that it had noticed more Russian military transport aircraft landing in Belgorod as of late – it linked these landings to Russian missile strikes on Kharkiv and other Ukrainian cities.
Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk accused Russia of trying to undermine international support for Ukraine, according to Reuters.
"Ukraine has the right to defend itself and destroy the means of the aggressors’ aerial attack," he said.
Today is Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service Day.
