Russia’s Ministry of Defense accused Ukraine on Wednesday of shooting down a military aircraft that was carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war over Russia’s western Belgorod region, killing everyone on board. The claim about what downed the II-76 aircraft could not be independently confirmed, but the ministry said Russian radar systems had detected the launch of two Ukrainian missiles that struck the plane.
Ukrainian officials have warned that they oppose sharing unverified data, with the country’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War issuing a saying saying that “the enemy is actively conducting special data operations against Ukraine aimed at destabilizing Ukrainian society. “
In a statement released later on Wednesday, Ukraine’s armed forces did not refer in particular to the plane crash in Belgorod, but noted a recent “intensity of shelling” in the region, which they called a direct reaction to “an increase in the number of Russian servicemen. “] Army dispatch planes that recently headed to the Belgorod airfield, which she said were similar to the logistics of current Russian missile movements in eastern Ukraine.
The Ukrainian military said it would “continue to take measures to destroy means of transport and airspace to destroy the terrorist threat” presented through Russia.
The Russian Defense Ministry said the plane was carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war from Shkalovsky, near Moscow, to Belgorod for a prisoner exchange. The official Russian news firm RIA Novosti said 65 prisoners of war were aboard the plane, as well as six crew members and 3 other people accompanying the prisoners.
A U.S. official told CBS News there were no immediate indications that a missile fired from Ukraine had struck the plane, and that it remained unclear whether there were Ukrainians on board the aircraft.
“We currently do not have reliable or comprehensive information on who was on board the plane or in what number,” Ukraine’s national intelligence directorate said in a statement, according to the French news agency AFP. It confirmed that a “prisoner exchange was supposed to take place” Wednesday, but said “Ukraine was not informed about the number of vehicles, routes and forms of delivery of prisoners.”
“Prisoners are known to be delivered by air, rail and road. This would possibly involve planned movements through Russia aimed at endangering the lives and protection of prisoners,” the directorate said in its statement, adding that Ukraine ” was not informed of “The need to ensure the security of airspace in the area around the city of Belgorod at an express time, as has been done several times in the past. “
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who is in New York to meet at the United Nations, on Wednesday called for an early emergency consultation of the U. N. Security Council to discuss the Belgorod crash, which he called a “Ukrainian criminal act. “
“On the morning of January 24, Moscow time, a terrorist attack took place. As a result, the Russian transport plane IL-76 was shot down in the Belgorod region. It was intended to transport 65 servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine from the Moscow region to Belgorod. They were accompanied by three Russian officials and a team of six. They all died,” Lavrov said. Ukrainian prisoners of war were sent to the Belgorod region to carry out a new exchange agreed between Moscow and Kyiv. “
An amateur video posted on social media and verified as original through CBS News’ partner network, BBC News, showed the plane falling from the sky and then a huge ball of flames erupting at the spot where it hit the ground. A small cloud of visual smoke in the sky where the plane had been sighted before it crashed.
The Russian Defense Ministry said a special army commission was heading to the crash site.
“So far, the only suggestion that there were Ukrainians on board comes from the Russian Ministry of Defense, which regularly serves as an indicator to the contrary,” said Keir Giles, senior research fellow for the Russia and Eurasia program at Chatham House in London. . think tank,” he said in a statement. Russia controls the crash site and has every opportunity to fabricate evidence to back up its story. Fragments of missiles and other “evidence” can be presented to journalists without any problems. . . In short, Russia holds all the cards to have a serious army. A local setback becomes a global propaganda victory.
There have been several injuries among Russian military aircraft lately, which some analysts say is due to the increase in the number of flights in the context of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to AP.
Belgorod Gov. Gladkov said a Ukrainian drone was shot down in the area last Wednesday, but there were no casualties or damage. This is the latest in what appears to be a move in Ukraine to expand its attacks inside Russia ahead of the second anniversary of Russia’s war. full-scale invasion on 24 February.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said in the past that the Ukrainian military will carry out more actions in the border region this year, in part to confuse Russians ahead of the country’s March 17 presidential election. President Vladimir Putin will run again, virtually unopposed. , after years of repression against any dissident bureaucracy.
Pamela Falk contributed reporting from the United Nations.