MOSCOW: Russia accused Ukraine on Wednesday of deliberately shooting down a Russian military transport plane carrying 65 captured Ukrainian soldiers to a prisoner exchange in what it called a barbaric act of terrorism that had killed a total of 74 people. The Russian defence ministry said six Russian crew members and three Russian soldiers had been on the Ilyushin Il-76 military transport plane shot down near the Russian city of Belgorod near the Ukrainian border.
Ukraine did not directly confirm it had shot down the plane, nor that Ukrainian prisoners were on board.But after a long pause the Ukrainian military said it would continue to destroy Russian military transport aircraft it believed were carrying missiles with which to strike Ukraine.
It said it had noticed more Russian military transport aircraft landing in Belgorod, something it linked to Russian missile strikes on Kharkiv and other Ukrainian cities. “With this in mind, the Armed Forces of Ukraine will continue to take measures to destroy means of delivery and exercise airspace control to eliminate the terrorist threat, including in the Belgorod-Kharkiv direction,” it said on Telegram.
The Russian defence ministry said the exchange was to take place on Wednesday afternoon at the Kolotilovka border checkpoint and Ukraine knew a transport plane carrying captured Ukrainian soldiers was expected at the Belgorod airfield. “By committing this terrorist act, the Ukrainian leadership has showed its true face. It disregarded the lives of its own citizens,” the ministry said.
But Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence agency said Ukraine had not been asked to ensure airspace security around Belgorod unlike previous swaps and had not been informed about what means of transport would be used and which routes. “On this basis, we may be talking about planned and deliberate actions by Russia to destabilise the situation in Ukraine and weaken international support for our state,” GUR said in a statement.
Russia’s defence ministry said its radar operators had detected the launch of two Ukrainian missiles at the time of the crash. Russia’s foreign ministry called it “a barbaric act” and foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow had called for an emergency UN Security Council session on Wednesday. If the details are confirmed, it would be the deadliest incident of its kind inside Russia’s internationally recognised borders during the almost two-year-old war. Russian state media published a list of names of the 65 captured Ukrainian soldiers it said were on board along with their dates of birth.
Video footage posted on the Telegram app by Baza, a channel linked to Russian security services,showed a large aircraft falling towards the ground near the village of Yablonovo in the Belgorod region and exploding in a vast fireball. Russian officials and lawmakers expressed outrage and questioned whether there should be further prisoner swaps. The most recent one, brokered by the UAE, took place this month and was the biggest to date, with 230 Ukrainian POWs returning home and 248 Russians released. It was the first in almost five months and 49th since the war began.
Ukraine did not directly confirm it had shot down the plane, nor that Ukrainian prisoners were on board.But after a long pause the Ukrainian military said it would continue to destroy Russian military transport aircraft it believed were carrying missiles with which to strike Ukraine.
It said it had noticed more Russian military transport aircraft landing in Belgorod, something it linked to Russian missile strikes on Kharkiv and other Ukrainian cities. “With this in mind, the Armed Forces of Ukraine will continue to take measures to destroy means of delivery and exercise airspace control to eliminate the terrorist threat, including in the Belgorod-Kharkiv direction,” it said on Telegram.
The Russian defence ministry said the exchange was to take place on Wednesday afternoon at the Kolotilovka border checkpoint and Ukraine knew a transport plane carrying captured Ukrainian soldiers was expected at the Belgorod airfield. “By committing this terrorist act, the Ukrainian leadership has showed its true face. It disregarded the lives of its own citizens,” the ministry said.
But Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence agency said Ukraine had not been asked to ensure airspace security around Belgorod unlike previous swaps and had not been informed about what means of transport would be used and which routes. “On this basis, we may be talking about planned and deliberate actions by Russia to destabilise the situation in Ukraine and weaken international support for our state,” GUR said in a statement.
Russia’s defence ministry said its radar operators had detected the launch of two Ukrainian missiles at the time of the crash. Russia’s foreign ministry called it “a barbaric act” and foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow had called for an emergency UN Security Council session on Wednesday. If the details are confirmed, it would be the deadliest incident of its kind inside Russia’s internationally recognised borders during the almost two-year-old war. Russian state media published a list of names of the 65 captured Ukrainian soldiers it said were on board along with their dates of birth.
Video footage posted on the Telegram app by Baza, a channel linked to Russian security services,showed a large aircraft falling towards the ground near the village of Yablonovo in the Belgorod region and exploding in a vast fireball. Russian officials and lawmakers expressed outrage and questioned whether there should be further prisoner swaps. The most recent one, brokered by the UAE, took place this month and was the biggest to date, with 230 Ukrainian POWs returning home and 248 Russians released. It was the first in almost five months and 49th since the war began.