After the plane crash over Belgorod, many questions remain unanswered. Ukraine insists on returning the remains. Kremlin spokesman Peskov replied that no such request had been received.
According to Ukrainian sources, Russia is refusing to hand over the remains of people who were said to have been killed in the crash of a Russian military transport plane. Kiev has repeatedly called on Moscow to hand over the bodies of those killed in the January 24 crash, Ukrainian military intelligence spokesman Andriy Yusov said on television. That was rejected.
Yussow again called for international investigations into the crash. The aim is to find out whether the cargo plane – in addition to the crew – had weapons or passengers on board.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Russian state news agency Ria Novosti that the Kremlin had not received a Ukrainian request to hand over the bodies. Russia and Ukraine had made mutual accusations about the crash. According to Russia, the accident was caused by a shoot down by Ukraine.
Neither confirmation nor denial from Ukraine
Moscow accuses Kiev of killing its own soldiers. Ukraine describes the information from Moscow as “wild Russian propaganda”. Ukraine has neither confirmed nor denied that it shot down the Il-76 aircraft. The Russian account that Ukrainian prisoners of war died in the crash could not be independently confirmed.
Conflict parties as a source
In the current situation, information on the course of the war, shelling and casualties provided by official bodies of the Russian and Ukrainian parties to the conflict cannot be directly verified by an independent body.
Kiev said Moscow had not asked to secure a specific area of airspace for a specific period of time, as it had done in previous prisoner exchanges. Yussov said on television that some of the Ukrainian prisoners of war who were to be exchanged on the day of the plane crash returned home on Wednesday. About 200 Ukrainian prisoners were exchanged that day.
According to Russian information, 74 people were on board
The Russian Investigative Committee said on Thursday that the investigation into the crash had shown that the military transport plane was brought down by the US-made Patriot anti-aircraft system. Western allies had delivered this to Kiev.
According to Russian information, there were 74 people on board, including 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war, six crew members and three Russian soldiers.