Russia has accused Kyiv of downing a large military transport plane carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war to an exchange on Wednesday, after a crash in the Belgorod region that killed everyone onboard.
Ukraine has neither confirmed nor denied that it hit the plane but said Moscow had created a “deliberate threat to the life and safety” of its PoWs by failing to warn Kyiv to deconflict the airspace before the swap.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, called for full clarity over the crash, accusing Moscow of “playing with the lives of Ukrainian prisoners of war”.
Zelenskiy said in his nightly video broadcast: “It is clear that the Russians are playing with the lives of Ukrainian prisoners, the feelings of their loved ones and the emotions of our society.”
Ukrainian military intelligence said it did not have “reliable and comprehensive” information about who or what was onboard the Ilyushin Il-76 aircraft, which was filmed crashing and exploding in a fireball on Wednesday afternoon.
The Russian ministry of defence quickly accused Ukraine of shooting down the Il-76, and claimed that the plane was carrying 65 Ukrainian PoWs who were to be swapped, along with six crew and three Russian servicemen. All of those onboard were killed, Russia said.
The Guardian could not immediately verify Russian claims of who was onboard and the cause of the crash was not yet confirmed.
In a statement on Wednesday evening, Ukrainian military intelligence did not directly confirm or deny targeting the Il-76, but accused Russia of failing to provide advance notice of which aircraft would be carrying the captured Ukrainian servicemen to the swap.
It confirmed plans for the swap, and said it had fulfilled its side of the bargain, delivering the Russian servicemen to the exchange point and providing for their safety.
“According to the agreement, the Russian side had to ensure the safety of our defenders,” Ukrainian military intelligence said in a statement. “The Ukrainian side was not informed about the need to ensure the safety of the airspace around the city of Belgorod for a certain period of time, as was repeatedly done in the past.”
The agency added: “This may indicate deliberate actions by Russia aimed at creating a threat to the life and safety of the prisoners.”
The Soviet-designed Ilyushin Il-76 is a military transport aircraft designed to airlift troops, cargo, military equipment and weapons.
Russia quickly accused Ukraine of targeting the aircraft using western anti-aircraft weapons.
Vyacheslav Volodin, the chair of the Duma, said the plane had been “shot down” by Kyiv and blamed western missiles. “They shot their own soldiers in the air. Their own,” Volodin told lawmakers in a plenary session. “Our pilots, who were carrying out a humanitarian mission, were shot down.”
Andrei Kartapolov, a senior lawmaker in Russia’s parliament and a retired general, said during a parliamentary session that the plane had been shot down by three missiles.
He did not reveal the source of his information. Kartapolov added that investigations would show whether the missiles were western-supplied Patriots or Iris-Ts. He claimed Russia and Ukraine were set to exchange 192 prisoners each on Wednesday before the plane crash.
The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said Russia had called for an emergency UN security council session later on Wednesday to discuss what he described as a “Ukrainian criminal act”.
The Ukrainian state body responsible for prisoner exchanges did not confirm the incident, but urged caution over “enemy propaganda resources about the crash”. Ukrainian military intelligence later confirmed that the planned prisoner exchange had not taken place on Wednesday.
The Ukrainska Pravda newspaper initially cited sources which said Kyiv’s armed forces had shot down the plane but later withdrew the report.
Later, Ukraine’s military accused the Russian army of using military transport aircraft to deliver missiles to the Belgorod region to perform cross-border attacks in recent weeks.
“With this in mind, the Ukrainian armed forces will continue to take measures to destroy delivery vehicles and control airspace to eliminate the terrorist threat, including in the Belgorod-Kharkiv direction,” the statement said.
This month, the two countries announced the largest exchange of prisoners since the start of the war, involving the return of more than 200 soldiers from each side in a deal mediated by the United Arab Emirates.
The Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, is a vital stop on Russian supply lines. It has come under extensive shelling and drone attacks for months including a missile strike on the region’s capital in December that killed at least 25 people.
