KIEV, Ukraine: Ukraine’s military intelligence has accused Russia of deliberately risking the lives of the prisoners of war (POWs), after Moscow said Kyiv had downed a plane with 65 PoWs on board.
The Ilyushin-76 military transport plane crashed in Russia’s southern Belgorod region bordering Ukraine.
Russia’s ministry of defence said Ukrainian PoWs were being flown to Belgorod for a prisoner swap. Kyiv, however, said they were not told to ensure safe airspace as on previous occasions.
The statement by the Ukrainian military intelligence is being seen as a tacit acknowledgement that it shot the plane down, although it stressed they had no reliable information about who was on board.
Russian state-owned domestic news agency, Ria Novosti said another nine people were on the plane, including six crew.
Video shared on social media showed a plane going down followed by an explosion and a fireball near the village of Yablonovo, 70kms to the north-east of Belgorod city, at around 11:00 local time (08:00 GMT).
IL-76 carrying Ukrainian POWs crashes in Belgorod region – Russian MoDhttps://t.co/do6MamDcza pic.twitter.com/8Xfzt7Gz21
— RT (@RT_com) January 24, 2024
Vyacheslav Gladkov, the regional governor in Russia’s Belgorod region, said the plane crashed in a field near a residential area and that everyone on board had died.
Ukrainska Pravda website quoted the Ukraine’s general staff as having said that initially the plane was transporting missiles for Russia’s S-300 air defence systems. It made no mention of prisoners of war.
None of the details about those on board could be independently verified, but Ukraine’s military intelligence said it was Russia’s responsibility “to ensure the safety of our defenders under the agreements that had been reached”.
It said it had not been informed that the airspace had to be safeguarded “at the defined time, which is something that had happened on numerous occasions before”.
“This can point to Russia’s deliberate actions aimed at putting the lives and safety of the PoWs under threat,” Ukraine’s military intelligence added.
Russia and Ukraine have taken part in a number of prisoner exchanges since the start of the war.
It was Russia that launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Ahead of the planned prisoner swap, Ukrainian officials said the captured Russian military servicemen were “delivered to the agreed location in time to be exchanged, and they were safe there”.
According to Russia’s defence ministry, the swap had been due to take place on Wednesday afternoon at a border checkpoint 100km to the west of Belgorod.
