As of: January 25, 2024, 3:33 p.m
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A police vehicle is on duty near the crash site of the Russian military transport plane near Jablonovo in the Belgorod border region.
© Alexander Zemlianichenko Jr/XinHua/dpa
A Russian military plane crashes - allegedly with dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war on board.
Russian propaganda?
Kiev has no clues and wants international help with the investigation.
Kiev/Moscow - Ukraine is demanding an international investigation after a Russian military transporter crashed under mysterious circumstances.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said this in his video address on Wednesday evening.
The Ukrainian human rights commissioner Dmytro Lubinets also made this demand on Thursday.
Russia, for its part, reported a need for clarification without responding to the Ukrainian demand.
There was no independent information on who or what the Ilyushin Il-76 aircraft was transporting, even the day after the crash.
But according to the Russian Defense Ministry, there were 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war inside who were supposedly being flown to a planned prisoner exchange.
Three security guards and a six-man crew were also on board.
Moscow accuses Ukraine of using Western anti-aircraft missiles to shoot down the plane over the Russian border region of Belgorod.
All people on board were killed.
The incident occurred on Wednesday - 23 months after the start of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine.
Ukraine has no evidence of prisoners in the plane
Lubinets said that the Ukrainian side had so far no evidence of prisoners of war being transported in the plane.
"We did not see any signs that there were a large number of people on the plane - whether they were Ukrainian citizens or non-Ukrainian citizens," he said on television.
“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,” Zelensky said in his speech.
He always cites the repatriation of thousands of Ukrainians from Russian captivity as a priority goal.
Russia, for its part, is demanding clarification
On the Russian side, the names of the crew on the Ilyushin were published on Thursday.
The two flight recorders were found intact and were being taken to be read, the Tass agency reported, citing rescue workers.
Accordingly, rocket parts were also found.
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“It has not yet been fully clarified what happened; investigators only began examining the remains of the plane yesterday,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin was informed by the military.
There will only be a reaction once open questions have been clarified.
Regarding Zelensky's calls for an international investigation, Peskov said: "If he has in mind an international investigation into the criminal actions of the Kiev regime, then that is necessary."
The Russian Duma deputy and defense politician Andrei Kartapolov rejected Kiev's statements that Russia had not informed about the prisoner transport by plane.
“The Ukrainian side has been officially informed,” he said.
However, Kiev's military intelligence did not instruct the anti-aircraft defense force to stop firing.
This information could not be verified.
Kyiv does not comment on the possible shooting
Unauthenticated images and videos on social media purporting to show the wreckage could indicate the impact of anti-aircraft weapons.
However, they provide no evidence that there were many bodies at the crash site.
Ukraine has not yet officially commented on a possible shoot-down.
Initial media reports about this were withdrawn after a short time.
According to unconfirmed Ukrainian military information, the plane was believed to be carrying supplies for the Russian front.
The Ukrainian secret service SBU started an investigation into a suspected war crime.
The Ukrainian Human Rights Commissioner Lubinets emphasized that, according to the Geneva Convention, the country of residence bears all responsibility for the life and health of the prisoners of war.
“This is the Russian Federation,” the ombudsman emphasized.
Before the exchange, Moscow was obliged to inform the International Committee of the Red Cross about the transport route of the prisoners.
He accused Moscow of a targeted and long-planned campaign to slander Ukraine.
Incident is used for propaganda
Experts at the US Institute for War Studies (ISW) in Washington wrote that neither the Russian nor the Ukrainian statements could be independently verified.
According to their assessment, the Russian leadership is exploiting the incident to sow distrust in Ukrainian society against the government in Kiev.
The exchange of prisoners of war is seen as a sensitive issue that triggers emotions for Ukrainians and Russians alike.
In addition, Russian officials wanted to weaken Western military support for the country with unsubstantiated claims that Ukraine used German or US missiles for the alleged launch.
dpa