Mystery about the occupants of the Russian plane: this is what is known about the crashed military plane

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According to Russian information, an Ilyushin-76 military aircraft crashed in the Belgorod border area around 11 a.m. local time (9 a.m. CET). Unverified videos on online services showed a large plane falling from the sky and then hitting the ground in a fireball.

According to the regional governor, the crash occurred in the Korochansky district. Investigators and emergency services are on scene. According to several Russian media, the plane crashed near the city of Yablonovo, 45 kilometers from the Ukrainian border.

According to information from Moscow, there were 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war on board. As the pro-government news agency RIA Novosti reported, citing the Russian Defense Ministry, the Ukrainians were heading to Belgorod for a prisoner exchange. According to RIA Novosti, in addition to the Ukrainian prisoners of war, there were six crew members and three escorts on board. According to local authorities, there were no survivors.

According to information from Ukraine, the plane had no prisoners on board, but missiles for the S-300 anti-aircraft system. What speaks for this: According to a Ukrainian journalist who refers to the flight recording website flightradar24.com, the plane made a detour via Iran. The missiles could have been brought on board there. However, nothing has been officially confirmed about the flight route so far.

Military analysts also doubt the Russian theory. For example, the list of alleged fatalities that journalist Margarita Simonjan published on her Telegram channel lists prisoners of war exchanged on January 3. Moreover, according to the Telegram channel “Pravda Gerashchenko”, it is doubtful whether 65 prisoners were accompanied by only three guards. Previously, twenty convoys were sent for fifty prisoners of war.

The Ministry of Defense in Moscow initially provided no information about the cause of the accident. An Air Force delegation was on its way to the crash site “to determine the causes of the disaster,” the report said. “We will clarify this,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov (56).

However, Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin (59) blames Ukraine and the weapons that the West supplies to Kiev. “They killed their own soldiers in the air, their mothers and their children were waiting for them,” Volodin said. “They shot down our pilots who were carrying out a humanitarian mission with American and German missiles.”

The Ilyushin was “shot down by three missiles from a German-made Patriot or Iris-T anti-aircraft system,” Volodin said.

There was initially no response from Kiev. Local media have since quoted military sources as saying Ukrainian forces shot down the missile-equipped plane. However, the information was later retracted.

No. Since the beginning of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, several military aircraft crashes have occurred in Russia. In October 2022, a Russian fighter jet crashed into a building in the city of Yeysk on Russia’s Sea of ​​Azov. 15 people were killed.

In August 2023, two months after the uprising of his mercenary group Wagner against the Russian military leadership, according to Western secret services, the private plane with Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin († 62) on board crashed on the flight from Moscow to St. Petersburg. because of a bomb on board. In addition to the Wagner boss, his deputy Dmitri Utkin († 53) and eight other people were also killed.

Ukrainian forces say they have shot down Russian planes in the past. Last week they destroyed an A-50 reconnaissance plane and an Il-22 command plane.

Source: Blick