photo copyrightTASS
January 24, 2024
Updated 7 hours ago
Ukraine still does not confirm Russia’s assertion that there were Ukrainian soldiers on board the Il-76 military transport aircraft that crashed in the Belgorod region. President Vladimir Zelensky did not mention who could have shot down the plane in his evening address. Prior to this, the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine stated that Russia did not warn Ukraine “about the need to ensure the security of the airspace” over Belgorod.
First, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine published a statement in which, without directly mentioning the crash of the Il-76 in the Belgorod region, it promised to “continue to take measures to destroy” military transport aircraft, including in the Belgorod-Kharkov direction.
Ukrainian media interpreted this as indirect confirmation that the Il-76 was indeed shot down by the Ukrainian military.
The statement first described the consequences of recent missile attacks on the Kharkov region and indicated that the missiles were being delivered by plane.
“To reduce the missile threat, the Armed Forces of Ukraine not only control the airspace, but also monitor in detail missile launch points and the logistics of their delivery, especially with the use of military transport aircraft. The recorded intensity of shelling is directly related to the increase in the number of military transport aircraft that have recently been heading to the Belgorod airfield,” the General Staff reported.
The Russian Ministry of Defense claims that the Ukrainian Armed Forces attacked the plane from the area of Liptsy, Kharkov region, using an anti-aircraft missile system.
“The radar equipment of the Russian Aerospace Forces observed the launch of two Ukrainian missiles,” the agency claims. There is no independent confirmation of this.
As BBC correspondent Pavel Aksenov previously wrote, this information could be confirmed by a video showing the trace of the missile or the very moment the plane was hit.
But there is no such video, and on the basis of the published video it is difficult to draw clear conclusions about the reasons for the plane’s crash – only its last seconds were filmed, and the Il-76 itself is quite poorly visible.
“Contrary to established practice”
Immediately after the plane crash, the Russian Ministry of Defense stated that on board the fallen Il-76 there were 65 captured military personnel of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, six crew members and three accompanying persons.
Play video, “Ukrainian prisoner of war about how prisoners are transported for exchange”, Duration 3.2903:29 Video caption,
A former Ukrainian prisoner of war talks about how prisoners are transported for exchange
Both Russian and Ukrainian authorities confirmed that a prisoner exchange was planned for Wednesday.
“I can state that the exchange planned for today is not taking place yet,” said, in particular, the representative of the GUR, Andrey Yusov, to the Ukrainian service of Radio Liberty (in Russia, all structures of this media are included in the register of “foreign agents”).
Later the GUR published more detailed message about the incident. It says that Russia did not warn Kyiv about the delivery of prisoners by plane and did not notify at all about the “number of vehicles, routes and methods of delivering prisoners.”
“The Ukrainian side was not informed of the need to ensure the security of airspace in the area of the city of Belgorod during a certain period of time, as has been done repeatedly in the past,” the department claims.
At the same time, intelligence officials emphasized that they still do not have information about the whereabouts and fate of the prisoners.
“The safety of our defenders, according to the agreements, was to be ensured by the Russian side,” the GUR also writes. “We may be talking about planned and deliberate actions of the Russian Federation with the aim of destabilizing the situation in Ukraine and weakening international support for our state.”
The Russian Ministry of Defense, meanwhile, argued that the Ukrainian leadership “knew perfectly well that, according to established practice, today Ukrainian military personnel would be transported by military transport aircraft to the Belgorod airfield for exchange.”
According to the previously reached agreement, the exchange was to take place in the afternoon at the Kolotilovka checkpoint on the Russian-Ukrainian border, the Russian department stated.
Zelensky’s statement
Author of the photo, President of Ukraine
He said that Ukraine would demand an international investigation into the incident, but did not provide any new details of what happened.
“It is obvious that the Russians are playing with the lives of Ukrainian prisoners, with the feelings of their relatives and with the emotions of our society,” the president said.
He said that the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny, the Minister of Defense and other military leaders told him “about the use of the Air Force,” and the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense is investigating the fate of the prisoners; All circumstances are being investigated by the Security Service of Ukraine.
“It is necessary to establish all the clear facts. “As much as possible, given that the plane crashed on Russian territory – beyond our control,” Zelensky said.
Il-76 crash: what we know and what we don’t know
- The first reports of the Il-76 crash appeared this morning. Only one video recording made from the ground is known. It captured the last seconds of the plane’s flight. The Il-76 is seen heading towards the ground, at some point a large fragment falls off from it, after which, presumably, a flame breaks out in the area of the left wing. The plane then disappears from the frame, followed by a large explosion;
- The Russian version of the disaster now sounds like this: Ukrainian prisoners who were being taken for exchange were in that very crashed Il-76. According to the ministry, six crew members, 65 Ukrainian prisoners and three Russian soldiers who accompanied them for the exchange (that is, everyone on board) were killed. The Russian Ministry of Defense insists that the Ukrainian side knew about plans to transport prisoners to Belgorod by plane;
- As of this moment, the Ukrainian side has not made public its version of what happened.
What we don’t know
- We still do not have reliable information about who was on board the crashed plane. Neither Moscow nor Kyiv provided official data on this matter (and did not confirm the authenticity of Margarita Simonyan’s list).
- It is unclear whether the crashed Il-76 could have been carrying anything other than the prisoners claimed by the Russian Ministry of Defense. Ukrainskaya Pravda and RBC-Ukraine, citing sources, reported in the morning that the plane was indeed shot down by the Ukrainian side and that the plane was allegedly carrying S-300 missiles, from which they fired at the Kharkov region. These materials were later edited;
- In addition, it is not clear why the Russian air defense system did not react to the supposed launch of MANPADS. The Russian Ministry of Defense in its statement about the disaster mentioned that “radar equipment of the Russian Aerospace Forces observed the launch of two Ukrainian missiles.” But it is not explained why the Russian military did not try to shoot down these missiles.
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