Russia on Wednesday said that an IL-76 military transport plane carrying 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war had crashed in the western Belgorod region, bordering Ukraine. Russia said there were no survivors in the plane crash.
Unverified videos purportedly showing a large plane falling from the sky on its side before crashing in a fireball surfaced on social media.
“At around 11 am Moscow time (0800 GMT), an IL-76 aircraft crashed in the Belgorod region during a routine flight,” Moscow’s defence ministry told Russian news agencies.
“On board were 65 captured Ukrainian army servicemen being transported to the Belgorod region for exchange, six crew members and three escorts,” the statement further said.
IL-76 carrying Ukrainian POWs crashes in Belgorod region – Russian MoDhttps://t.co/do6MamDcza pic.twitter.com/8Xfzt7Gz21— RT (@RT_com) January 24, 2024
According to an AFP report, Vyacheslav Volodin, the top lawmaker in Russia’s lower house of parliament, said the plane had been “shot down” by Kyiv and blamed Western missiles.
“They shot their own soldiers in the air. Their own. Our pilots, who were carrying out a humanitarian mission, were shot down,” Volodin told lawmakers in a plenary session.
The crash occurred in the Korochansky district, northeast of the region’s capital, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram.
“Now an investigation team and emergency services are working on the site. I have changed my working schedule and travelled to the district,” Gladkov noted.
Earlier, Gladkov had announced a missile alert over the region, but it was not immediately clear if the two events were connected.
In Kyiv, however, local media initially cited sources in the Ukrainian military saying that its army downed the plane, which was transporting missiles.
The claim was later retracted.
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