While the Russian Federation and Ukraine are finding out who is to blame for the crash of the Il-76, relatives of the prisoners of war who were allegedly on the plane are anxiously awaiting news. What is known at this hour.
Moscow blames Ukraine for the plane crash; in Kyiv they say they “have no information” about what happened, writes euronews.
The coordination headquarters for the treatment of prisoners of war reported that Russia, after a long pause provided a list with the Ukrainian military, who, according to her version of Rospropaganda, were on board the fallen Il-76. The message says, quotes “UP”:
“During the meeting, Dmitry Usov announced that the Russian side responded to repeated requests with a long delay, referring to one of the lists previously published on Russian propaganda resources. The coordination headquarters, for its part, confirms that 65 Ukrainian defenders are from this list It was indeed planned to return to Ukraine as part of the exchange on January 24.”
According to the department, the interviewed relatives of the military from this list got acquainted with the video allegedly from the scene of the disaster and did not find any special signs on the released body fragmentspointing to their relatives.
Moscow claims Ukraine shot down an Il-76 carrying 65 Ukrainians for exchange. In Kyiv they insist that “have no information” that the military transport plane was shot down by Ukrainian air defense, as well as the fact that there were indeed Ukrainian prisoners of war on board. Evgenia Sinelnik, a representative of the families of prisoners of war, says:
“There is no longer any strength to shed tears – this is the situation. But the worst thing is that everyone was waiting for the start of these exchanges. After the last exchange, everyone thought that it was beginning, because, as we always say, this is our main call. We must open our eyes to the world, so that he wakes up and understands that captivity is not an option to save his life.”
The head of the coordination headquarters, Kirill Budanov, emphasized that for now there is no reliable information about who could actually be on board the plane:
“We are collecting and carefully analyzing all available information on this matter from so many sources. There is currently no information indicating that so many people could have been on that plane. At the same time, the Russian propaganda version that the said Il-76M could transport 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war for exchange still raises many questions.”
Sergei Andrushchenko, first deputy head of the SBU, argues that Russia’s latest actions indicate that it is trying to hide the real causes of the plane crash from the world community:
“Russia immediately stated that it would not allow international experts to investigate the Il-76M crash. However, Ukraine will use all tools to find out both the true causes of what happened and who or what was actually transported on that plane.”
Independent experts believe the plane was likely shot down by a surface-to-air missile, which both Russia and Ukraine have. Representative of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine Andrey Yusov said that Russia did not notify Ukraine that prisoners would be transported by air and did not request a “silence regime” in this area — unlike the previous exchange. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky called for an international investigation into the incident.
The Investigative Committee of Russia on the evening of Friday, January 26, published in the Telegram channel fragment of video from a surveillance camera at a military airfield. The Russian side claims that the video footage shows Ukrainian prisoners of war boarding an Il-76 transport plane, which subsequently, on January 24, crashed in the Belgorod region.
Due to the poor quality of the video, DW writes, it is almost impossible to determine exactly what exactly is happening on it, just as it is not possible to determine when and where exactly all this was filmed. Presumably, the recording was made by a surveillance camera at a military airfield. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the plane was flying from the Chkalovsky airfield, located northeast of Moscow.
The video, which lasts just over a minute, consists of two parts. In the first one you can see a convoy of cars approaching the plane along a snowy road. The second part shows a closer-up of the plane, near which the movements of certain people and cars take place. It is impossible to reliably establish that everything that happens in the video is related to the statement of the RF Investigative Committee.
All that can be recognized is a car with an alarm on, followed by a line of six paddy wagons. There are no captions on the video showing the date and time of shooting. The press service of the Investigative Committee did not provide any additional details at the time of publication of this text.
Russian President Vladimir Putin On January 26, he commented for the first time on the crash of the Russian Il-76. He claims that the plane was hit by the Ukrainian military using a foreign-made air defense system:
“This can be seen from the elements of destruction. Our air defense systems, by definition, cannot carry out strikes on their aircraft. There are friend-or-foe systems there, and no matter how much the operator presses the button, our air defense systems would not work. Most likely, these are American Patriot or European, most likely French. But in a couple of days the exact answer will be given.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YO77RkthuNY
According to him, the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense knew that the Russian Federation was transporting prisoners of war.
Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Alexey Danilov warned against premature conclusions about the reasons for the fall of the Il-76, calling for waiting for all the circumstances to be clarified. He said this on January 26, quoted by DW: “We understand that Russia is an insidious country. Therefore, we will wait for the final conclusion. The situation is under the control of the highest military political leadership of Ukraine. We understand what is happening and where. There is not much time left to wait so that we can finally find out what happened there.”
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