Russia said Wednesday that an IL-76 military transport plane carrying 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war, POWs, had crashed in the western Belgorod region, bordering Ukraine.
According to the AFP, unverified videos on social media showed a large plane falling from the sky on its side before crashing in a fireball.
“At around 11 a.m. Moscow time (0800 GMT), an IL-76 aircraft crashed in the Belgorod region during a routine flight,” Moscow’s defence ministry told Russian news agencies.
“On board were 65 captured Ukrainian army servicemen. They were being transported to the Belgorod region for exchange, six crew members and three escorts,” it said.
It was not able to immediately verify Russia’s claim. And the fate of the passengers was not immediately clear.
However, Vyacheslav Volodin, the top lawmaker in Russia’s lower house of parliament, said the plane had been “shot down” by Kyiv. He also blamed Western missiles.
“They shot their own soldiers in the air. Their own,” Volodin told lawmakers in a plenary session. “Our pilots, who were carrying out a humanitarian mission, were shot down.”
