Russia-Ukraine war: Russian military transport plane crashes in Belgorod region

A Russian Ilyushin-76 military transport plane has crashed in Russia’s southern Belgorod region on the border with Ukraine.

Russia’s defence ministry said the flight was carrying 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war, who were about to be exchanged.

They were killed, together with six Russian crew and “three accompanying persons”, the Moscow news agency Tass reported.

The authorities were investigating the cause of the crash, and a special military commission was on the way to the crash site, the Russian Defence Ministry said.

The Ukrainskaya Pravda newspaper, citing sources, initially said Kyiv’s armed forces shot down the plane, but the Ukrainian online site later withdrew the report.

The details of who was on board could not be immediately verified.

Footage circulating on social media appeared to show the moment a large aircraft crashed and exploded in a vast fireball. Other images showed wreckage scattered over a snowy field

The Belgorod regional governor, Mikhail Gladkov, said on Telegram that an “accident” had occurred, adding that the emergency services were working at the scene.

The Soviet-designed Ilyushin Il-76 is a military transport aircraft designed to airlift troops, cargo, military equipment and weapons.

Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker 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,” Mr 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. – Guardian