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aFri, Jan 26, 2024 6:27 p.m. +0100 bJan 26, 2024 6:27 p.m. c
Updated: January 26, 2024 6:27 p.m. Published: January 26, 2024, 5:47 p.m
Wreckage of a Russian Il-76 military transport aircraft that crashed in the Belgorod region on January 25, 2024. AP/Uncredited
MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin said Ukraine shot down a Russian Air Force transport plane carrying prisoners of war with a missile supplied from the United States or France, which he said Kiev knew about, Russian authorities reported. According to them, the Kremlin ordered the publication of the most detailed investigation results, and Putin promised that this would happen within two to three days, according to Reuters.
“They (the Ukrainians) shot down our Il-76 aircraft with their own soldiers, 65 people,” Putin said at a meeting with students, according to TASS. He added that Ukrainian military intelligence HUR knew that the Russians were transporting prisoners of war to the site of their upcoming exchange, with 65 of a total of 190 prisoners on a particular plane. “I don’t know if they did.” “I did it on purpose or by mistake,” Putin said. “But they did,” he added.
“I will ask the investigative committee to make all the circumstances of this crime public as much as possible. So that the people of Ukraine also know what really happened,” said the Russian president.
Ukraine has neither denied nor confirmed that the plane that crashed on Wednesday in the Belgorod region, near the border with Ukraine, was shot down by Ukrainian forces. However, Ukraine pointed out that there was no evidence of who or what was on board. It denied some of Moscow’s claims and called for an international investigation, which Moscow rejected.
According to Ukrainska Pravda, Ukrainian Security Council Secretary Oleksiy Danilov said today that UN officials cannot verify Russian claims about the incident because they have no right to see the crime scene. HUR intelligence spokesman Andriy Yusov pointed out today that “mysterious circumstances” could indicate that Russia deliberately prepared the Il-76 incident, according to the Unian agency. Among other things, he pointed out that Russia had not provided the International Committee of the Red Cross with any information about the Ukrainian prisoners of war that were to be exchanged on Wednesday. Russia has not even presented evidence to the UN Security Council that Ukrainian prisoners were on board the plane and it rejects an international investigation, Yusov said, according to the Ukrainska Pravda website.
Putin also said today that there were “more than 600,000 Russian soldiers” on the Ukrainian battlefield, where the front line stretches almost 2,000 kilometers. According to TASS, everyone receives an average salary of 200,000 rubles per month (almost CZK 51,000), he added.
The Russian editors of the BBC recalled that at the end of last year Putin spoke about deploying 617,000 Russian soldiers to Ukraine.
Putin, who triggered Europe’s bloodiest conflict by ordering troops to invade the neighboring country on February 24, 2022, convinced listeners that the war was actually started by Ukrainians by sending forces into eastern Ukraine’s Donbass in 2014, where Russia – after the overthrow of the pro-Russian president in Kiev and fueled the separatist uprising against the new government in Kiev after the annexation of Ukrainian Crimea. And the invasion of Russian troops in February last year was, according to Putin, “an attempt to end this war, albeit by armed means.” According to Putin, the only reason for the invasion was to protect Russian interests and nothing else.
“We are doing everything right. We are fighting for a just cause,” Putin claimed today.
The Russians claim they found Ukrainian documents and tattoos at the Il-76 crash site
Russian investigators said they found Ukrainian documents and body parts with distinctive Ukrainian tattoos in the area where a Russian Il-76 military transport plane crashed on Wednesday. Moscow claims there were Ukrainian prisoners of war on board the plane. The plane crashed in the Belgorod region, not far from the border with Ukraine, which has been resisting armed Russian aggression for almost two years.
The Russian Investigative Committee also later released footage allegedly showing Ukrainian prisoners of war boarding the Il-76, which Russian President Vladimir Putin said was shot down intentionally or accidentally by Ukrainian air defenses. For example, footage from the state news agency RIA Novosti shows several trucks approaching the transport plane, although the footage is taken from a distance and details cannot be seen. Putin promised to publish the results of the investigation within two to three days.
Shortly after the crash, Moscow accused Ukraine of shooting down the plane with 74 people on board, including 65 captured Ukrainian soldiers who were to be exchanged for Russians captured by the Ukrainian side on Wednesday. Kiev has neither confirmed nor denied that the plane was shot down by Ukrainian forces. However, Ukraine pointed out that there was no evidence of who or what was on board. She denied some of Moscow’s claims and called for an international investigation, Reuters recalled.
The Investigative Committee of Russia (SKR), which plays the role of the federal criminal headquarters, said criminal experts continue to inspect the Il-76 crash site and conduct further investigative measures. “The found body parts of the dead are systematically collected in the prescribed manner for subsequent DNA testing for identification. Some parts of the victims’ bodies have distinctive tattoos. Similar symbols were found on the bodies of many Ukrainian soldiers, including Azov soldiers. “Soldiers of the regiment banned in Russia who were previously interrogated by investigators,” SKR explained. He added that the physical evidence found included documents from Ukrainian soldiers who died in the plane’s wreckage.
Russia has exclusive access to the crash site, making it impossible to independently verify claims about what happened and what evidence investigators obtained, Reuters noted.
According to preliminary findings, the plane was hit by an anti-aircraft missile fired from Ukraine, investigators said on Thursday.
Ukraine has rejected Russian claims that it was warned about a plane carrying prisoners of war over the Belgorod region. She also pointed to discrepancies in a purported list of Ukrainians published by Russian media, saying some of them had already been released and returned to their homeland as part of an earlier prisoner exchange.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he was not aware that an official list would be published. He also told reporters that he did not know what would happen to the victims’ remains and whether they would be handed over to Ukraine.
Asked whether Russia would present evidence to the UN Security Council and other international organizations that the plane was shot down by Ukraine, Peskov said he would not comment on this yet as the investigation was ongoing and he would only comment afterwards The investigators had gathered all the necessary information.
Russian state media said the plane’s black boxes had been delivered to a special Defense Ministry laboratory in Moscow and investigators were working to decode them.
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