Kyiv, Ukraine
Ukrainian authorities said Russia had provided no credible evidence to support its claim that Kiev forces shot down a military plane carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war who were to be exchanged for Russians.
The Ukrainian agency that manages the prisoner exchange noted on Friday evening that Russian authorities had “long delayed” submitting the list of 65 Ukrainians who Moscow said died in Wednesday's plane crash in Russia's Belgorod region.
The Coordination Staff for the Treatment of Prisoners of War of Ukraine stated that the relatives of the named prisoners could not identify their relatives in the crash site images provided by Moscow. Kiev has no verifiable information about the people on board, the report added, citing the country's military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov.
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday that missiles fired from across the border had shot down the transport plane in which it said the prisoners of war were en route to Ukraine. Authorities in Belgorod, which borders Ukrainian territory, said all 74 people on board had died, including six crew members and three Russian soldiers.
“We currently have no indication that there could have been that many people on the plane. “The Russian propaganda claim that the IL-76 transported 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war for an exchange continues to raise many questions,” Budanov said.
On social media on Wednesday, users in Belgorod posted a video showing a plane falling from the sky in a snowy rural area, creating a huge fireball where it would have hit the ground.
Kiev has neither confirmed nor denied that its forces shot down a military transport plane that day, and the Kremlin's claims about the death toll in the incident could not be independently verified. Earlier on Friday, Mykola Oleshchuk, commander of the Ukrainian Air Force, described Moscow's accusations as “rampant Russian propaganda.”
Ukrainian authorities confirmed earlier this week that a prisoner of war exchange would take place on Wednesday, but it was canceled. In addition, they said Moscow did not require security to be maintained in a specific section of airspace for a specific period of time, as had been the case in previous exchanges.
For his part, a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Ukraine called on Russia on Friday evening to return the bodies of all prisoners of war killed in the plane crash.
In a live interview with the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Red Cross spokesman Oleksandr Vlasenko also stressed that between the first reports of the incident and Moscow's statement that it was ready to return the bodies, ” “very little time” has passed for the Ukrainian.
Although Kiev and Moscow often exchange the bodies of dead soldiers, each of these operations requires significant preparation, he added.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for an international investigation into the incidents. Only Russia has access to the crash site.
Vladimir Putin promised on Friday that he would publish the conclusions of Moscow's investigation. In his initial statements on the incident, the Russian president repeated Russian officials' claims that “everything was planned” for a prisoner exchange that day.
“Knowing (that the prisoners were on board), they attacked that plane. “I don’t know if they did it on purpose or accidentally, out of irresponsibility,” Putin said at a meeting with students. in Saint Petersburg.
The president gave no details to support the allegations against Kiev, but said the devices recording flight data and cockpit voices had been found.
“There are black boxes, everything is collected and shown,” Putin said.
This story was originally published on January 27, 2024 at 7:01 am.