65 Ukraninian POWs Among 74 Dead After Ukraine Downs Russian Plane
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has since acknowledged that it shot down a Russian military transport plane.
BELGOROD, Russia— All 74 people on board a Russian military plane were killed when it crashed and exploded in a giant fireball in the Belgorod region of western Russia, about 25 kilometers from the border with Ukraine.
The Russian Defense Ministry said the IL-76 aircraft was carrying 65 captured Ukranian military personnel, six crew members, and three guards when it went down while approaching the airport at Yablonovo.
The plane was transporting Ukrainian prisoners of war for an expected exchange, according to Russian news agencies.
"Ukraine's attack on the IL-76 was deliberate," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Ambulance crews, firefighters and police officers were sent to the crash site. The governor of the Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, visited the scene and said rescuers were searching for survivors but everyone on board had been killed.
A Russian investigative committee said it opened a criminal case into the crash. Ukraine's military hasn't commented on the incident.
Last July, dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed when a prison in a separatist region of eastern Ukraine was bombed.
Moscow opened a probe then, too, but hasn't reported any findings.
Meanwhile, The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has acknowledged that it shot down a Russian military transport plane carrying equipment and personnel in the Kharkiv region, but declined to confirm if any Ukrainian prisoners of war were onboard.
The statement marks the first acknowledgment by Ukraine that its forces were responsible for downing the Ilyushin Il-76 aircraft on Wednesday.
"The Armed Forces of Ukraine will continue to take measures to destroy the means of delivery, airspace control to destroy the terrorist threat, including in the Belgorod-Kharkov direction," the General Staff said in a statement.
The statement made no mention of whether any Ukrainian prisoners of war were among the casualties.
"This brings back memories of years ago when that Malaysian flight flew over Ukraine and was shot down," said Michael Maloof, a former Pentagon official, referring to Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, which was shot down over eastern Ukraine in 2014.