Ukraine says Russia has not returned bodies of prisoners from crashed Il-76 plane

"Russia claims that our soldiers who were taken prisoner were on board the plane and we can only analyze their information," Andriy Yusov, spokesman for the Main Directorate of Military Intelligence of Ukraine (GUR), said on January 30. "The Russian side is not ready to transfer the bodies to us."

Mr. Yusov said that the Russian Il-76 transport plane that crashed in Belgorod province on January 24 "could have been transporting ammunition, prisoners were used as human shields" and that GUR was investigating the related information. The GUR spokesman also accused Russia's response and the circumstances of the disaster of being "provocative".

Russia has not commented on the information given by the GUR spokesman.

Debris of the Il-76 transport plane that crashed in Belgorod province, Russia on January 24. Photo: SKR

Russian officials accused Ukraine of shooting down an Il-76 transport plane “carrying 65 prisoners,” causing the plane to crash in Belgorod province. All on board were killed, including the Ukrainian prisoners, three guards and a crew of six.

Russia has released a list of 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war who were on board the Il-76. Ukraine's POW agency confirmed that the list includes those who will be exchanged. However, the GUR chief said that Russia has not provided evidence that the 65 captured Ukrainian soldiers were on board the crashed Il-76.

Last week, the Russian Investigative Committee (SKR) released a video of Ukrainian prisoners boarding an Il-76 transport plane and the crash site with the bodies of the victims.

SKR said many of the bodies had distinctive tattoos similar to the symbols found on Ukrainian soldiers. "These bodies will be collected according to regulations and subjected to genetic testing to determine their identities," SKR said.

The Ilyushin Il-76 is the Soviet Union's first four-engine jet strategic transport aircraft, entering service in 1974 with a total of nearly 1,000 built since then.

The Il-76 is designed to transport oversized cargo, as well as to serve emergency transport and humanitarian aid purposes around the world . The aircraft is capable of landing and taking off on a variety of runways, including hard ground and polar glaciers.

Each Il-76MD transport aircraft is 46.6 m long, has a wingspan of 50.5 m, is 14.7 m high, has an empty weight of 92.5 tons and a maximum payload of up to 48 tons. The aircraft reaches a maximum speed of 900 km/h, with a range of about 4,400 km with the largest cargo volume.

Location of Belgorod Oblast, Russia. Graphics: RYV

Nguyen Tien (According to Reuters )

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