Russia military plane crashes carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war, says Moscow

A Russian military transport plane has crashed in a region bordering Ukraine, with Russian officials saying that all 74 people on board – including 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war – killed.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said that the Ilyushin Il-76 was carrying the 65 PoWs who were to take part in a prisoner exchange. The ministry added there were also six crew and three other other people were also on the flight.

Ukraine’s defence ministry was quoted by the Interfax-Ukraine news agency as saying it did not have any reliable information for now but would share it when it did.

Mykhailo Podolyak, a Ukrainian presidential adviser, said: “Comments will come a little later. Time is needed to clarify all the data.”

The Russian Defence Ministry sought to blame Kyiv for the crash, claiming that two missiles had been detected by Russian radar before the plane went down.

Video posted on the Telegram messenger app by Baza, a channel linked to Russian security services, showed a large aircraft falling towards the ground and exploding in a vast fireball.

Other video footage shared on social media showed a plane going down near the village of Yablonovo, about 30 miles from the Ukraine border, followed by an explosion, at around 11am local time (8am GMT). A local church rector in the area told Tass that the plane “fell in a field behind the village”, adding that there was no damage to the village itself.

The authorities were investigating the cause of the crash, and a special military commission was on the way to the crash site, the Russian Defence Ministry said.

Ukrainian media outlet Ukrainska Pravda initially cited military sources as saying the plane was carrying S-300 missiles, but later corrected the story saying that information had not been confirmed by other sources.

Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War (KSHPPV), the body in charge of PoW exchanges, said they are “collecting and analysing all necessary information”. However, the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence directorate, Andriy Yusov, said a prisoner exchange had been due to take place.

“I can state that the exchange planned for today is not going ahead,” he told Radio Liberty.

The Russian Defence Ministry said that a prisoner exchange had been due to take place on Wednesday afternoon at a border checkpoint 100km to the west of Belgorod, it added. Ukraine and Russia have taken part in a number of prisoner exchanges since the start of Russia’s invasion.

Andrei Kartapolov, the chairman of Russia’s parliamentary defence committee, claimed there had been a second plane in the air transporting 80 Ukrainian prisoners, although that plane had then changed course. “There can now be no talk of any other [prisoner] exchanges,” Mr Kartapolov told Russian TV.

Photos from the crash site, published by Russian outlet 112, show chunks of the plane scattered across a snowy field.

The Il-76 is a military transport aircraft designed to airlift troops, cargo, military equipment and weapons. It has a normal crew of five people, and can carry up to 90 passengers.

Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said that an unspecified “incident” had occurred in the region’s Korochansky district, northeast of Belgorod city, and that he was going to inspect the site. He said investigators and emergency workers were already on the scene.

He later claimed that all persons on board the plane have died, again without providing evicence. The Kremlin, meanwhile, said that it was looking into the situation.

The Belgorod region has come under frequent attack from Ukraine in recent months, including a December missile strike which killed 25 people.

Russia has largely ensured its air dominance during the war, which marked its 700th day on Wednesday, against Ukraine’s fleet of Soviet-era warplanes. But the Russian air forcehas suffered a string of crashes that some observers have attributed to a higher number of flights amid the fighting in Ukraine.

At the same time, Kyiv has boasted recently about shooting down two Russian command and control planes

Earlier on Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said a major Russian missile attack that apparently was devised to overwhelm Ukraine’s air defenses had killed 18 people and injured 130. Ukraine is marking the 700th day since the full-scale invasion by Kremlin’s forces started.

The barrage employing more than 40 ballistic, cruise, anti-aircraft and guided missiles early Tuesday hit 130 residential buildings in three Ukrainian cities, “all ordinary houses,” Mr Zelensky said on X, formerly Twitter.

The Ukrianian Air Force has been approached for comment.

Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report