MOSCOW—Russia accused Ukraine on Jan. 24 of deliberately shooting down a Russian military transport plane that was carrying 65 captured Ukrainian soldiers to a prisoner exchange. A local official said all 74 people on board were killed.
Six Russian crew members and three guards were on the Ilyushin Il-76 military transport plane, which was shot down near the Russian city of Belgorod near the Ukrainian border, Russian state media said.
“It was absolutely deliberate. They knew very well that the plane was en route, where it was going and the operators of [Ukrainian] surface-to-air missile systems cannot mistake transport planes for military planes or helicopters as targets,” Andrei Kartapolov, a lawmaker in Russia’s parliament and a retired general, said in a TV interview with the SHOT outlet.
“It was done deliberately to sabotage the prisoner exchange.”
Mr. Kartapolov said the plane was shot down by three missiles of either U.S. or German manufacture.
If the details are confirmed, it would be the deadliest incident of the almost two-year-old war inside Russia’s internationally recognized borders.
Ukraine’s defense ministry didn’t immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment. It was cited by the Interfax-Ukraine news agency as saying it didn’t have any reliable information for now but would share it when it did.
“Comments will come a little later, ”Mykhailo Podolyak, a Ukrainian presidential adviser, told Reuters: “Time is needed to clarify all the data.”
Ukrainian media outlet Ukrainska Pravda initially cited military sources as saying Kyiv had shot down the plane because it was carrying S-300 missiles, but later corrected the story saying that information hadn’t been confirmed by other sources.
Video posted on the Telegram messaging app by Baza, a channel linked to Russian security services, and verified by Reuters, showed a large aircraft falling toward the ground near the village of Yablonovo in the Belgorod region and exploding in a large fireball.
Governor Says No Survivors
Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the region of Belgorod, said everyone on board the plane had been killed and that the plane had come down in the region’s Korochansky district, northeast of the city of Belgorod.He said investigators and emergency workers were already on the scene.
The Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, has come under frequent attack from Ukraine in recent months, including a December missile strike that killed 25 people.
Vyacheslav Volodin, chairman of the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, said the chamber would prepare an appeal to the U.S. Congress and the German Bundestag “so their lawmakers at last can see clearly who they are financing, who they are helping.”
“[Ukraine] shot down their own soldiers in mid-air. Their mothers, wives, and children were waiting for them. They took a decision and shot down our defenseless pilots on a military transport plane, who were carrying out a humanitarian mission, with American and German rockets,” Mr. Volodin said.
The Il-76 is a military transport aircraft designed to airlift troops, cargo, military equipment, and weapons. It usually has a crew of five, and it can carry up to 90 passengers.
The Kremlin said in response to a reporter’s question that it was looking into the situation.
