74 dead after Russian plane carrying Ukrainian PoWs crashed, Moscow says

As per the Russian defense ministry, a huge military plane belonging to Russia has met with an accident in the Belgorod border area, causing the unfortunate demise of all the 74 crew members in it.

The department announced that the airplane from Ilyushin Il-76 was transporting 65 prisoners of war from Ukraine for exchanging. The authenticity of the information regarding onboard passengers and the reasons behind the accident, as stated by Russia, has yet to be confirmed by The Guardian.

The government ministry stated that the Ilyushin Il-76 had six crew members and three Russian military personnel on board.

There has been no direct response from Ukraine regarding the occurrence. Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to the Ukrainian president, shared with Reuters that they will not be commenting just yet. They require additional time to obtain all the necessary information to provide a clear statement.

The Ukrainskaya Pravda journal first reported that sources claimed the armed forces of Kyiv were responsible for shooting down the plane, but later retracted the statement.

A video being circulated on various social media platforms seemed to reveal the instant a massive airplane wrecked and burst into flames, creating an enormous inferno. Additional pictures depicted fragments of the aircraft strewn across a snowy terrain.

The Ilyushin Il-76, created by the Soviet Union, serves as a military plane transportation vehicle made specially to carry soldiers, gear, weaponry and cargo.

The officials in Russia along with their defence ministry blamed Ukraine for intentionally targeting and bringing down the plane used for transportation.

The military of Ukraine claimed that the Russian army transported missiles using military aircraft to Belgorod area to conduct attacks across the border in the past few weeks. This statement was later made public by the Ukrainian authorities.

Keeping this in consideration, the Ukrainian military will keep on implementing strategies to annihilate transportation equipment and supervise the sky to eradicate the danger of terrorism, specifically in the Belgorod-Kharkiv route, as mentioned in the declaration.

The authorities did not give confirmation or denial regarding the plane's shooting on Wednesday. However, they seem to have reacted to Ukrainskaya Pravda's retraction of their report. The article had stated that the military was aiming for a convoy of S-300 missiles while on their way to Belgorod.

The leader of the Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, claimed that Kyiv was responsible for the destruction of the plane and accused western missiles of being involved.

During a plenary session, Volodin informed lawmakers that their own soldiers were fired at in the sky, including the pilots who were on a humanitarian mission and were subsequently downed.

During a meeting in Russia’s parliament, Andrei Kartapolov, a retired general and esteemed lawmaker, stated that three missiles were responsible for bringing down the aircraft.

He kept the origin of his information hidden. Kartapalov stated that further inquiries will determine if the missiles were provided by western-made Patriots or Iris-Ts.

Kartapalov asserted that on Wednesday prior to the plane crash, there was a plan for Russia and Ukraine to swap 192 captives.

The Ukrainian government agency in charge of exchanging prisoners did not verify the event, but advised people to be careful of false information from the opposing side regarding the accident.

An individual speaking on behalf of Ukraine's military intelligence informed Radio Liberty that a swap of detainees between Russia and Ukraine was being readied for Wednesday.

Andriy Yusov said that the exchange that was supposed to happen today is not happening yet.

Yusov stated that his organization was investigating the validity of Russia's claim that Ukrainian captives were on the ill-fated aircraft.

During this month, the two nations declared the biggest swapping process of captives since the commencement of the conflict by sending back more than 200 troops from each faction in an agreement supervised by the United Arab Emirates.

Some people from Ukraine have expressed doubts about the statements from Russia that the airplane carried 65 war prisoners from Ukraine. There is no video evidence to support this claim, and the route that the plane was taking has not been verified. The news outlet RT, which is backed by the Kremlin, has posted footage of the wreckage but has censored the plane's tail number, which makes it harder to confirm whether it was used for a prisoner swap.

The area of Belgorod, which is next to Ukraine, is a very important location for Russia's supply routes. It has experienced a great deal of damage from bombing and drone strikes for several months, including a rocket attack on the main city in December which resulted in the loss of 25 lives.