Russian Jet Crashes Carrying Ukrainian PoWs – Moscow

MOSCOW: A Russian Ilyushin-76 military transport plane has crashed in the southern Belgorod region bordering Ukraine.

Russia’s ministry of defence said 65 captured Ukrainian military were on the plane heading to Belgorod region for a prisoner exchange.

None of the details surrounding those on board can be independently verified.

Ria Novosti news agency said another nine people were on the plane, including six crew.

Ukraine’s general staff, quoted by the Ukrainska Pravda website, said the plane was transporting missiles for Russia’s S-300 air defence systems. It made no mention of prisoners of war.

Video shared on social media showed a plane going down followed by an explosion and a fireball near the village of Yablonovo, 70km (44 miles) to the north-east of the city of Belgorod, at around 11:00 local time (08:00 GMT).

Some Ukrainian media suggested initially that the Il-76 may have been downed by Ukrainian forces, but those reports were later deleted.

A Ukraine’s general said that it did not have accurate information about the situation and that it was investigating the circumstances.

Source – BBC