Russia announced on Thursday it would open a “terrorism” investigation the day after a Russian military plane crashed near the Ukrainian border. Moscow accuses Kiev of knowingly shooting down the plane that, according to Russian authorities, was transporting 65 Ukrainian prisoners. Follow The latest information live.
18:21
CRASH IN RUSSIA: INVESTIGATION FOR “TERRORISM”
Russia announced on Thursday it would open a “terrorism” investigation the day after a Russian military plane crashed near the Ukrainian border. Moscow accused Kiev of knowingly shooting down the plane that Russian authorities said was carrying 65 Ukrainian prisoners.
“A criminal investigation into a terrorist attack is underway following the crash of an Il-76 aircraft in the Belgorod region,” the Russian Investigative Committee said in a statement. The day before, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had called for an international investigation.
5:59 p.m
UKRAINIAN JOURNALISTS VICTIMS OF INTIMIDATION
Investigative journalists in Ukraine have recently become the target of “acts of intimidation” that may be related to the investigations they are conducting into corruption in the country, the organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) lamented on Thursday, denouncing “an increase in pressure against Ukrainian journalists.” Media”.
“Several worrying cases of intimidation have occurred in recent weeks and we hope this trend does not continue,” Pauline Maufrais, head of the organization's Ukraine mission, told AFP.
13:29
27 years in prison for murder of pro-Kremlin blogger
Russian justice announced that on Thursday it sentenced Daria Trepova, a 26-year-old young woman accused of the explosive murder in April 2023 of a Russian nationalist blogger specializing in the attack on Ukraine, to 27 years in prison.
Daria “Trepova was sentenced to 27 years in a penal colony,” said a statement from a military court in St. Petersburg (northwestern Russia), where the trial took place.
12:56
INTERPELLATIONS FROM GUIRKINE SUPPORTERS
Three supporters of Russian nationalist opponent Igor Girkin, who was sentenced to four years in prison on Thursday, were arrested by police after the verdict was announced in court, AFP journalists on the scene noted.
One of those arrested held a poster with the inscription “Freedom for Strelkov!” (the nom de guerre of Igor Girkin, editor's note) and, like the other two arrested, fought for the “Other Russia” party, founded by the nationalist writer Eduard Limonov.
12:22
GUIKINE SENTENCED TO 4 YEARS IN PRISON
Russian justice on Thursday sentenced Igor Girkin, an ardent nationalist and veteran of the Ukrainian front in 2014, to four years in prison for “extremism.” He became a Kremlin critic and supported the attack on Ukraine.
“I serve the homeland,” the former commander of the pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, who was convicted in the Netherlands in 2014 for destroying the MH17 aircraft over eastern Ukraine, announced at the sentencing.
11:49
Kyiv REQUESTS A SITE INSPECTION
Ukraine's human rights chief Dmytro Loubinets demanded on Thursday that the UN and the Red Cross be given access to the crash site of a military plane in Russia that Moscow said was carrying 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war the day before.
“I will ask representatives of these organizations to take part in the inspection of the sites,” reiterated Dmytro Loubinets in Russia’s Belgorod region, saying he had contacted the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to find out whether This was the case and knew about a prisoner transfer by Russia on Wednesday. However, he said he was “convinced” that “no one should be allowed to see the site.”
10:19
Ukraine says it hit an oil site in Russia
According to a military source told AFP, Ukraine claimed responsibility on Thursday for a drone attack against an oil complex in southern Russia where Russian authorities had reported a fire.
Ukrainian security services (SBU) attacked a refinery in Tuapse, a city on the Black Sea coast, and an “oil processing plant” was damaged, the source said. During the night, regional authorities announced that an oil site was burning in Tuapse, without naming the causes of the disaster.
10:18
OPENING OF AN INVESTIGATION BY UKRAINIAN SPECIAL SERVICES
Ukraine's special service (SBU) announced on Thursday the opening of an investigation into the crash of a Russian military aircraft the day before in the border region of Belgorod. Moscow accused Kiev of shooting down the plane while Ukrainian prisoners of war were on board.
“The investigation is being carried out in accordance with Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (violation of the laws and customs of war),” the SBU said, a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Moscow of “playing” with the lives of Ukrainians. Prisoners.
09:27
“CIVIL ARMY”
As the two-year anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine approaches, Britain's chief of staff has called for “training a citizen army” to address the risks of conflict. As an example, he particularly cited the measures taken by some European countries to strengthen themselves in the face of the “Russian threat”.
08:51
Ukraine says it shot down 11 Russian drones
Ukraine said on Thursday that it had shot down 11 of the 14 drones launched by Russia overnight, causing several injuries in the country's southern regions.
The Ukrainian Air Force said air defense systems in the Odessa and Mykolaiv regions shot down the drones, while the Interior Ministry said the attacks wounded six people and damaged residential buildings and a warehouse in Odessa.
08:13
RUSSIAN PLANE CRASH
The Kremlin describes the crash of a Russian military transport plane as a “monstrous act” by Kiev, for which it blames Ukraine. “The fact that the Ukrainians killed their prisoners, their citizens who were supposed to be at home, almost within 24 hours is, of course, a completely monstrous act,” Peskov was quoted as saying by news agencies.
According to Moscow, the plane shot down on Wednesday 45 kilometers from the border with Ukraine in the Russian region of Belgorod was transporting 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war for exchange.
07:43
Emergency meeting at the UN Security Council
The UN Security Council is meeting urgently on Thursday at the request of Moscow, which accuses Ukraine of shooting down a Russian military transport plane and killing all passengers, including 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war who were to be exchanged.
The meeting must take place at 5 p.m., the French Council Presidency said on Wednesday at the request of the head of Russian diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov, who is in New York.
06:59
UPDATE ON THE SITUATION
Here you will find the latest key data on the conflict:
– Moscow said Russia accused Ukraine of shooting down a Russian military transport plane over the border region of Belgorod on Wednesday, killing all on board, including 65 Ukrainian prisoners. In his daily internet address in the evening, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for an international investigation to be launched. The UN Security Council will meet urgently this Thursday afternoon at Moscow's request.
– A Russian attack left two dead and eight injured, including a 16-year-old teenager, in a village in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine on Wednesday, regional authorities announced.
– Russian MPs voted in first reading on Wednesday for a bill aimed at confiscating money and property from anyone found guilty of spreading “false information” about the army.
06:52
GOOD MORNING
Welcome to this live broadcast dedicated to the war in Ukraine. Here you will find the latest information and powerful images on this conflict.
The Kremlin has accused Ukraine of shooting down a Russian military transport plane over the border region of Belgorod, killing all passengers, including 65 Ukrainian prisoners. In his daily address in the evening, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for an international investigation to be launched. “It is obvious that the Russians are playing with the lives of Ukrainian prisoners, with the feelings of their parents and the emotions of our society,” he said, without confirming or denying that the victims were actually prisoners of his country. “We need to clarify all the facts clearly and as accurately as possible, since the plane was shot down on Russian territory, which is beyond our control,” Zelensky added.
At Moscow's request, an emergency meeting of the Security Council will take place on Thursday afternoon, the Council Presidency announced on Wednesday.
For its part, Ukrainian Military Intelligence (GUR) reiterated that it had “no reliable information” about the passengers of the downed Il-76, while confirming that an exchange of prisoners was “planned” but ultimately not shot down. Previously, the Russian Defense Ministry criticized Ukraine for “shooting down” a Russian military plane that was “transporting Ukrainian soldiers for an exchange.” According to Moscow, the Ukrainian army “knew” that the Russians would fly the prisoners to Belgorod and then to a meeting point at the border.
The Ukrainian secret service, however, assured that Kiev “was not informed about the need” to secure the airspace in the region. Ukraine does not know “the number of vehicles, the route and the means of transport of the prisoners,” he said, accusing Moscow of knowingly “putting them in danger” in this case. The Russian army, in turn, claims that the Ukrainian armed forces fired “two missiles” from “an anti-aircraft system” in order to shoot down the Il-76 military transport aircraft and then “blame Russia.”
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In a press release published a few hours after the crash, the Ukrainian army promised, without directly mentioning it, to continue “destroying transport aircraft and controlling airspace (…), including in the Belgorod-Kharkiv area.”
The editorial team of TF1info