A Russian military transport plane with 74 people on board, including 65 Ukrainian Prisoners of War (PoWs), crashed in Belgorod region of Russia on Wednesday, the country’s defence ministry said as reported by news agency TASS.
The crash took place at about 8 am GMT and the Russian news agency cited the governor of the region, stating on his Telegram channel that the incident occurred in the Korocha district, situated near the country’s border with Ukraine and all aboard the military plane Ilyushin-76 were killed.
“On January 24 this year an Ilyushin-76 transport plane crashed in the Belgorod Region during a scheduled flight at about 11 a.m. Moscow time (8 a.m. GMT). There were 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war who were being moved to the Belgorod Region for an exchange, and three escorts on board,” Russia’s Defence Ministry said as cited by TASS.
Officials said that Moscow has dispatched a panel of inquiry to probe into the incident.
Meanwhile, CNN reported that Ukraine is investigating Russia’s claims that the crashed plane was carrying Ukrainian servicemen ahead of a prisoner exchange.
However, the official Ukrainian information service, citing sources in Kiev military claimed that the Soviet-era military plane was carrying missiles for the Russian S-300 air defence system, CNN said that it has not verified either side’s claim.
Washington Post quoted senior Russian officials who without, providing evidence said it was shot down by Ukrainian forces using either German or US-made missiles.”
According to media outlet RT, Russian MP Andrey Kartapolov said that there were two planes carrying Ukrainian PoWs, and that Moscow had to urgently divert the second IL-76, carrying 80 captured troops, out of the danger zone.
The legislator said that despite Kiev being aware about the flight route, the plane was shot down by three anti-aircraft missiles fired from either US-made Patriot or German-made IRIS-T systems.