The Ukrainian Government admitted on Thursday the possibility that the Russian plane shot down on Wednesday in the border area with Ukraine was transporting 65 Ukrainian prisoners for an exchange, something that it had denied until now, as it claimed that it was a plane that transported weapons.
Ukraine’s deputy representative to the UN, Khrystyna Hayovyshyn, spoke at a session of the Security Council specifically dedicated to the plane incident and which had been urgently requested by Russia.
“If the information that there were Ukrainian prisoners of war is confirmed – said the diplomat -, we will be facing another serious violation of international humanitarian law by Russia, in the first case in which Russia uses human shields in the air to cover the transport of missiles”.
This is the first official Ukrainian statement in which they admit that the information provided by Russia may be true: that the plane was carrying 65 prisoners, three guards and six crew members, all of them killed by a Ukrainian projectile.
The Ukrainian representative gave another detail that also supports the Russian thesis, when she said that her country has registered a criminal complaint against Russia for having violated Article 130 of the Geneva Convention “by having omitted its duty to guarantee the safety of prisoners.” and having transported them “in a means of transportation that is a legitimate target (of war) due to its military use.”
However, the diplomat insisted that according to information from her military intelligence services, only five bodies were admitted to the morgue in the city of Belgorod after the accident.
In any case, Hayovyshyn once again called for an urgent international investigation into the events, and added that whatever the result, “ultimate responsibility falls on Russia” for having launched the war against Ukraine.
In the same session of the Security Council, the UN Undersecretary General for Political Affairs, Rosemary DiCarlo, had already intervened, who clarified that the UN could not independently confirm the cross accusations of Russia and Ukraine regarding the incident.
Furthermore, the deputy US representative, Robert Wood, did not deny the veracity of the Russian version of events either, which suggested that it could be true.
