Without proof and without access to the disaster site, the international community is struggling to react to the crash of the Russian military plane in Belgorod, Russia, but near the Ukrainian border, Wednesday January 24. According to Moscow, the plane was transporting 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war. kyiv and Moscow blame each other for this crash; they continued to do so at the UN yesterday, Thursday January 25, where a special meeting on the subject was convened at the request of the Russian mission.
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With our correspondent in New York, Carrie Nooten
For Moscow, it is “of a premeditated and well thought out crime» from Ukraine, which allegedly destroyed the plane carrying its own prisoners. kyiv initially questioned the presence of prisoners on board. Then clarified that if confirmed, Russia had not acted according to the rules by not warning that it was transporting prisoners of war into the combat zone, but also by using them as human shields to conceal the transport of missiles.
“Responsibility»
So many violations of international humanitarian law, as the Swiss deputy ambassador Adrian Hauri recalled: “Prisoners of war must be protected against the dangers arising from military operations. The primary responsibility for ensuring their safety, including during transport, lies with the detaining power.»
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Russia says it has recovered the black boxes from the device, but rejects the idea of an international investigation. Ukraine has asked the UN to inspect the crash site, but as it is a military plane, UN agencies do not have the legitimacy to do so. This is not the first time that Russia has been involved in air disasters for which it denies responsibility and Russian Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy had difficulty convincing yesterday of a Ukrainian terrorist act.as for the Malaysia Airlines plane», Russian responsibility having been recognized in the crash of flight MH17 in 2014.
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