Ukraine Says There's No Evidence for Russia's Claim that Dozens of POWs Died in Plane Crash

Ukraine’s officials on Friday said that there is “no  credible evidence” that Ukraine’s military shot down the Russian military transport plane and that it was carrying dozens of POWs onboard that would be swapped during the ongoing war. According to a statement published by Ukrainian agency that deals with prisoner exchanges, Russia provided a list of the 65 Ukrainians, who it says died in a plane crash in the bordering town of Belgorod.

As per Ukraine’s Coordination Staff for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, the relatives of the POWs were unable to identify their loved ones from the photos Russia provided of the published crash site. Russian officials “with great delay” provided the list naming 65 Ukrainian prisoners who the Russian officials say were on the flight that went down.

Chairman of the Defense Committee of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, Andrey Kartapolov claimed that Ukraine was aware of the planned exchange of POWs. He added that the Ilyushin Il-76 of the Russian Air Force plane was shot down using three German-made missiles of the Patriot or Iris-T air defense systems of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said, "Today, at 11:15 a.m., the Kyiv regime committed a terrorist act as a result of which a Russian military transport aircraft was shot down, flying along the route Chkalovsky-Belgorod airfield to transport Ukrainian military personnel for exchange.”

Relatives unable to identify POWs

After assessing the crash site photos provided by Russian authorities, the relatives have said that they aren’t able to identify those who were killed on the plane, the agency said. In a statement, Ukraine’s military intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, said that there was no verifiable information with Ukraine about who was onboard the plane.

“We currently don’t have evidence that there could have been that many people onboard the aircraft. Russian propaganda’s claim that the IL-76 aircraft was transporting 65 Ukrainian POWs (heading) for a prisoner swap continues to raise a lot of questions,” Budanov of Ukrainian agency, said.

Russian Defense Ministry said that a Ukrainian missile was fired from across the border that downed the transport plane with POWs in Belgorod. As many as 74 people died onboard, including six crew members and three Russian servicemen, it added.