RuAviation

An IL-76 transport aircraft of the Russian Air Force with 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war being transported for exchange, six crew members and three escorts, crashed in Belgorod Region. A VKS commission has flown to the site of the IL-76 crash to establish the causes of the accident, the Russian Defence Ministry said.

The aircraft crashed in a field near the village of Yablonovo, Belgorod region. Ukrainian resources engaged in monitoring radio airwaves published a recording from an aircraft flying near the downed Il-76. The crew reports via radio communication about a missile hitting the military transport aircraft. The video shows how parts of the structure start to separate from the aircraft as it falls, and a few seconds later there is an impact on the ground and an explosion.

The AFU General Staff told some leading media outlets that the plane was allegedly carrying missiles for S-300 systems, which are being used to shell Kharkiv region. At the same time, Russian media reported that the plane crashed as a result of a technical malfunction. It is specified that it caught fire and began to collapse while still in the air. Earlier, the information about the defeat of the board exactly with Ukrainian prisoners confirmed with reference to his sources political émigré, blogger Anatoly Shariy.

“Voenkory Russkaya Vesna” reports that this Il-76 was constantly used to deliver prisoners, so it flew quite freely, using the closed airport in Belgorod. The same plane carried Ukrainian prisoners for exchange on 3 January. Then 173 AFU fighters were exchanged for 248 Russian servicemen.

According to Yevgeniy Popov, a TV journalist and TV presenter, member of the State Duma, the Ukrainian side was informed about the route of the plane with the Ukrainian prisoners.

“The Ukrainian side knew everything. It knew everything and purposefully killed its servicemen. And now Kiev is boasting that their missile shot down Il-76. This case with the aircraft is not the first,” said Anastasia Kashevarova, a public figure and journalist associated with prisoner exchanges.

State Duma deputy, General Andrei Kartapolov said that the plane was shot down by NATO SAMs, another Il-76 with 80 captive Ukrainian POWs had to be urgently turned around to save their lives.
“Ukraine knew who they were bringing in. The aircraft was shot down by either Patriots or three German missiles (IRIS-T SLM). What a degree of cynicism to destroy their own citizens, their own soldiers. It is time to recognise Ukraine as a terrorist state and its ruling regime as a terrorist cell,” Kartapolov said.

State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin instructed to prepare an appeal of the State Duma to the US Congress and the Bundestag in connection with the Il-76 crash.

“Ukrainian Pravda” and other Kiev media, which reported, citing sources, that Il-76 was shot down by the AFU, urgently removed from the news all mention of the aircraft being hit by their own military. Now they simply write about the crash. The Ukrainian Defence Ministry said that it could not confirm that the Ukrainian Armed Forces had shot down the aircraft and was still clarifying the data.