A Russian Il-76 military transport plane carrying 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war crashed on Wednesday in the Belgorod region, bordering Ukraine, the Russian Defense Ministry announced, according to Russian agencies.
“At around 11:00 Moscow time (08:00 GMT), an Il-76 plane crashed in the Belgorod region […] On board were 65 captured soldiers of the Ukrainian army, transported to the Belgorod region for exchange, six crew members and three attendants,” the ministry said. “A commission from the Ukrainian army “air went to the site of the plane crash to establish the causes of the disaster,” he added.
No one survived the crash, local governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram. Still according to this source, the aircraft carried 74 people on board.
A device that falls steeply
Images circulating on social networks show a device falling almost steeply, before a large explosion, accompanied by flames and black smoke. The Russian ministry has not given any indication at this stage as to the fate of the plane’s occupants.
Questioned during his daily press briefing, the Kremlin spokesperson did not comment, noting the too “recent” nature of the information. “We’re going to clear this up,” he said. The Belgorod region is very regularly targeted by Ukrainian missile and drone fire due to its proximity to the border. Russia has continued to bomb Ukraine since it launched its assault in February 2022.
Duma Speaker accuses kyiv
The President of the Russian Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, did not wait to accuse Kiev, just a few minutes after the announcement of the disaster, of having shot down the plane transporting these prisoners with a view, according to Moscow, to a exchange. “They killed their own soldiers in the air. Their mothers, their children were waiting for them,” he proclaimed in the chamber. “They shot down our pilots who were carrying out a humanitarian mission (…) with American and German missiles,” he continued.
Another deputy, chairman of the Defense Committee in the Duma, also made these accusations. “Ukrainian leaders were fully aware of the upcoming exchange and were informed of how the prisoners would be delivered,” Andrei Kartapolov said, according to Russian media.
“But the Il-76 plane was shot down by three missiles from a Patriot or IRIS-T surface-to-air missile system, made in Germany, experts will sort things out,” he said. Vyacheslav Volodin immediately called on his fellow deputies to vote on a resolution addressed to the United States and Germany because these countries have supplied ground-to-air systems to Ukraine.
Several air disasters
In July 2022, Russians and Ukrainians had already accused each other of the deadly bombing of a prison housing Ukrainian prisoners in Olenivka, a village in eastern Ukraine occupied by Russia.
Since the start of its offensive against Ukraine, Russia has experienced several air disasters involving army aircraft. Ukraine has shot down Russian aircraft in the past. It thus claimed last week to have shot down an A-50 spy plane (Russian equivalent of Western AWACS) and destroyed an Il-22 command plane.
Finally, the plane carrying the leader of the Wagner armed group, Yevgeni Prigozhin, crashed in August 2023 during a flight connecting Moscow and St. Petersburg, killing him and his top lieutenants a few weeks after an abortive mutiny.
Russian authorities then denied any involvement and estimated that the plane may have crashed because its passengers detonated a grenade on board.