Ukraine says Kremlin has no evidence of POWs on downed plane
- 27 January, 00:06
Russia has provided no evidence that Ukrainian prisoners of war were abord a military plane downed in Russia’s Belgorod region, Ukrainian officials said on Wednesday.
Russia claims that 65 Ukrainian POWs that were set to be exchanged on Wednesday, were killed as Ilyushin Il-76 transport plane was downed on the border with Ukraine on the same day. Five crew members were also killed during the crash.
Head of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency Kyrylo Budanov met on Friday with the relatives of the prisoners of wars who were allegedly aboard the plane. He said Russia has asked the relatives of the POWs to submit DNA to match to bodies of detainees allegedly killed during the crash. He added that Moscow has yet to provide evidence of their remains.
Russia and Ukraine have traded accusations over the Ilyushin Il-76 plane that Russia says Ukraine downed on the border.
Ukrainian military intelligence neither denied nor confirmed downing the Russian military plane, but accused Russia of failing to provide advance notice of which aircraft would be carrying the captured Ukrainian servicemen to the swap.
“I don’t know if they did it on purpose or by mistake, but it is obvious that they did it,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said in televised comments on Friday, stressing that the downing of the plane was a crime. Putin said that the findings of the Russian Investigative Committee would be published in two to three days, but preliminary results suggested that the missiles that hit the plane were either American or French. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy in turn, called for an international investigation into the crash.
The downing of the plane with POWs on board could threaten the future of prisoner exchanges between Russia Ukraine.
