The homecoming of 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war turned into a tragedy yesterday, according to Russia, which accuses Ukraine of shooting down a Russian Ilyushin 76 military plane carrying its own soldiers. The Russian Ministry of Defense assured that they were part of an agreed exchange and that they were to be exchanged for pro-Russian soldiers captured by the Ukrainian army.
Although it is too early to know the cause of what happened, Russian deputy Andrei Kartapolov, a retired general who chairs the Duma’s defense committee, assured a session of the Lower House that the plane was brought down by three missiles from the that the West has supplied to Ukraine. According to him, the missiles would have been Patriot (American-made) or IRIS-T (German-made).
According to the legislator, the damaged plane was followed by another Il-76 with nearly 80 prisoners on board. After the events, he was sent back. Kartapolov assured, as quoted by Interfax, that this Wednesday, January 24, an exchange of prisoners of war was about to take place, “192 for 192”.
Moscow accused Kyiv of trying to sabotage the exchange. “The Ukrainian leadership was well aware that, in accordance with established practice, Ukrainian servicemen would be transported today by military transport aircraft to an airfield in Belgorod to be exchanged,” the Defense Ministry said in a statement.
“By committing this terrorist act, the Ukrainian leaders have shown their true face. They have not taken into account the lives of their own citizens”, the message continued.
The ministry said its radars had detected the launch of two Ukrainian missiles from Kharkiv province when the plane was shot down.
Andrí Yussov, spokesman for Ukrainian military intelligence, confirmed to Radio Svoboda that a prisoner exchange had been planned for yesterday.
The two Slavic countries are engaged in the most serious armed conflict in Europe since World War II. Next month it will be two years since, on February 24, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his armed forces to enter the neighboring country. Since then, Moscow and Kyiv have exchanged prisoners regularly.
The Russian transport plane crashed in Belgorod Oblast around eleven in the morning (nine in Spain), the Russian Ministry of Defense said in a statement. The regional governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, had previously specified that the events had happened in the Korotxa region, when he announced that he was urgently going to that area because there had been an “incident”, and that investigators and services were already working there emergency The plane fell near the village of Yablonovi, a town with about 1,700 inhabitants.
As it borders Ukraine, Belgorod is the Russian region most punished in this conflict. At the end of last year, on December 30, it suffered the largest attack by Ukrainian artillery against Russian territory, in a bombardment that left 25 dead, according to Russia.
It was Ukraine’s response to a massive Russian airstrike on several Ukrainian cities the day before that killed 55 civilians, according to Ukraine.
The Russian military note on the Il-76 indicates that there were also six crew members and three Russian military personnel on the plane, who were the guards in charge of the prisoners. All occupants of the ship, 74 in total, lost their lives, Governor Gladkov confirmed.
A video posted on Telegram by the Baza channel shows a huge aircraft crashing to the ground and exploding in a huge fireball.
Ukrainian media outlet Ukraínskaia Pravda initially cited Ukrainian military sources as saying that Kyiv had shot down the plane because it was carrying missiles for Russian S-300 launchers. He later corrected himself and stated that there were no other sources to confirm the information.
The Ukrainian authorities remained silent on the incident late yesterday. “Time is needed to clarify all the data,” Mikhaïl Podoliak, adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky, told Reuters.
Only the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Ukrainian Rada (Parliament), Dmitró Lubinets, made an “appeal to the media and citizens not to draw hasty conclusions”. And he accused Russia of being a manipulator. “The insidious enemy. We know all the means that Russia uses to destabilize society”, he assured.
