Russia releases video of Ukrainian prisoners boarding plane before tragedy

According to RT (Russia), a one-minute video released by the Russian Investigative Committee on January 26 shows several trucks approaching a military transport plane parked on a snow-covered runway.

Investigators described the video as showing "Ukrainian prisoners of war boarding an Il-76 that crashed in the Belgorod region as a result of an attack".

Russia releases video of Ukrainian prisoners boarding crashed Il-76 plane (Source: RT).

Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine's human rights official, dismissed the material released by Russia, accusing it of being "elements of an information and propaganda campaign against Ukraine".

On January 24, a Russian Il-76 transport plane carrying 74 people, including 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war, crashed in the Belgorod region (Russia). The accident killed everyone on board.

Russia and Ukraine continue to give conflicting information and call for an investigation. Currently, only Russian officials have access to the crash site. According to TASS news agency, Russian investigators have found the plane's two black boxes and brought them to Moscow for analysis.

Moscow accused Kiev of shooting down the plane with a missile. Ukraine has neither denied nor confirmed responsibility for the incident, but President Volodymyr Zelensky criticized Moscow for "playing with the lives of Ukrainian prisoners of war." Kiev also said the Il-76 plane was carrying an S-300 missile.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on January 26 that the Ukrainian military intelligence agency (GUR) knew in advance that Russia would transfer 65 Ukrainian soldiers to the prisoner-of-war area, but despite knowing this information, they still "shot down the plane".

According to President Putin, objects recovered from the crash site show that an American or French anti-aircraft missile was used to shoot down the Il-76 plane.

Earlier, the head of the Russian Parliament's Defense Committee Andrei Kartapolov on the Ukrainian side was informed 15 minutes before the Il-76 entered the area. The Russian official said that the Ukrainian Military Intelligence Directorate also received this information.

Ukrainian Military Intelligence spokesman Andriy Yusov said Kiev had not received any written or oral requests from Russia to avoid attacks in the area where the aircraft operated.

According to Mr. Yusov, at the time of the accident, two other Russian military aircraft, An-26 and An-72, were also in the area.

The Russian Investigative Committee said the anti-aircraft missile that hit the Il-76 transport plane in Russia's Belgorod region was launched from the village of Liptsy in Ukraine's Kharkov region.

At the meeting of the United Nations Security Council on January 25, Russia's Deputy Special Envoy to the United Nations Dmitry Polyanskiy emphasized that all available information about the suspected shooting down of a Russian Il-76 military transport plane carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war showed that this was a deliberate attack.

Ukraine said on January 26 that Russia had returned the bodies of 77 soldiers, days after the plane was shot down.

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