According to consistent reports from Kiev and Moscow, a Russian military transport plane crashed near Belgorod. Who or what was on board is controversial – either Ukrainian prisoners of war or weapons.
According to the Defense Ministry in Moscow, an army transport plane crashed near the Russian city of Belgorod. There were 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war on board who were said to be on their way to a prisoner exchange. There were also six crew members and three other people as “escort personnel” in the Il-76 machine.
The governor of Belgorod, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said that all inmates had died. A special military commission is going to the crash site, the Defense Ministry said. Belgorod is located not far from the border with Ukraine.
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.
Russia blames Ukraine
The head of the Russian State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, blamed Ukraine and weapons supplied to Kiev by the West for the crash. “They killed their own soldiers in the air, their mothers, their children were waiting for them,” Volodin said in the Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament. “They shot down our pilots who were carrying out a humanitarian mission (…) with American and German missiles.” The Ilyushin was “shot down by three missiles from a German-made Patriot or Iris-T anti-aircraft system,” Volodin said.
The head of the Russian Defense Committee, Andrei Kartapolov, also spoke of a Ukrainian missile system, probably of German design, which is said to have caused the plane to crash. Reported on this accusation ARD correspondent Frank Aischmann from Moscow. Kartapolov also spoke of a second plane with another 80 prisoners of war that was able to turn around. So far there are far more question marks than answers, says Aischmann.
What was the plane carrying?
The Ukrainian news portal Ukrayinska Pravda, however, reports, citing the General Staff, that the transport plane had weapons on board. Ukrayinska Pravda initially spoke of the plane being shot down. This version was then changed.
Ukraine has been defending itself against the Russian war of aggression for almost two years – today is the 700th day of the Russian full-scale invasion.
Hatched: territories occupied by Russia
Frank Aischmann, ARD Moscow, tagesschau, January 24, 2024 11:28 a.m