At the end of January, there would be a prisoner exchange between the countries. The Ukrainian military intelligence service, GUR, announced that the Russian prisoners had been transported to the right place at the appointed time.
However, the prisoner exchange never took place. A Russian aircraft of the Ilyushin Il-76 model fell to the ground and exploded near Belgorod, Russia. The Russians claimed there were 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war on board.
Zelensky: “Played with the prisoners’ lives”
The incident developed into an intense information war. Initially there were reports from Ukraine that they would have shot down the plane, information that was later retracted.
At the same time, GUR said that the Russians did not inform about the route taken by the prisoners, and that it is not safe to land a plane in the vicinity of a war zone – this must be discussed between both parties in advance.
“This may indicate deliberate actions on the part of Russia aimed at creating a threat to the lives and safety of prisoners,” GUR wrote in a press release
Ukrainian President Zelensky said that they were “playing with the lives of the Ukrainian prisoners”. However, a former Russian general claims that a warning had been sent to the Ukrainians 15 minutes before the plane crashed.
Claims that Ukraine shot down the plane
Russia pointed to Ukraine, which it says shot down the plane with two robots. According to Kyiv Post however, no evidence of this has been presented.
Ukraine has also questioned why the bodies were not returned, if there were even any.
– It was supposed that this would show the world that Ukrainians were murderers. But there are no bodies, there is nothing, Kyrylo Budanov, head of the Ukrainian intelligence service GUR, said after the incident.
Russia: Can hand over the bodies
Signals are now coming from Russia that they want to hand over the bodies to Ukraine.
– The bodies can be handed over according to existing procedures, says Russia’s human rights ombudsman, Tatyana Moskalkova, to the state-run Russian news agency Ria Novosti.
Ukraine says it has repeatedly asked Russia to return the bodies. Moskalkova states that she has been in contact with Ukraine and “gave answers to all questions about the incident”, reports Kyiv Post.
President Zelensky has demanded an international investigation into the incident, something that Russia has not allowed.
Russia has published a list of the deceased prisoners, which has not been able to be verified. After the incident, there have been new prisoner exchanges, but none of the 65 mentioned prisoners have then been handed over to Ukraine.
– Regarding the bodies, I directly informed the Ukrainian side that we have confirmation and all the DNA, which according to the experts’ opinion allows us to carry out identifications, says the Russian Ombudsman Tatyana Moskalkova.