Russian transport plane shot down.
On 24 January 2024, Ukraine shot down a Russian transport plane carrying Ukrainian soldiers held by Russia as prisoners of war.
Russia claims it was carrying 74 people, including 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war, 6 Russian crew and 3 escorts.
Russia claims that its radar registered the launch of two missiles from Ukraine’s Kharkiv region bordering Belgorod.
Russia had NOT requested safe passage for the plane, that was entering their war zone with Ukraine.
Ukraine air defence would have assumed it was a normal Russian air movement.
Ukraine has shot down many Russian planes in that area, and Russia would have been aware of that risk. That may have been the reason that few Russians were on the plane, even though more had been listed as boarding.
Ukraine may have been aware that
Russian officials were to be on board the downed Il-76 plane. However, these Russian officials were ordered off the flight at the last minute.
Senior Russian officials were due to fly on the doomed military plane that crashed Wednesday, killing around 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war – but were stopped “at the last moment” by their security services.
Russian Officials ordered of Doomed Plane
The Russian Defense Ministry accused Ukraine of committing a “terrorist act,” saying that the plane, (entering a war zone), was downed by anti-aircraft missiles fired from the village of Lyptsi in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that an investigation into “the criminal actions of the Kyiv regime” was definitely needed.
Russia said there were no survivors after their Il-76 plane crashed near Yablonovo, 44 miles southeast of the Belgorod border region of Russia.
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