Russian Defense Ministry alleges Ukraine shot down Il-17 with missiles launched from Kharkiv region
The Russian Defense Ministry has issued a statement calling the crash of an Il-17 military plane in the Belgorod region on Wednesday a “terrorist attack” that was caused by the “Kyiv regime.”
In the Defense Ministry’s account, the aircraft was flying from the Chkalovsky Air Base in the Moscow region to Belgorod to “transport Ukrainian POWs for an exchange.” The agency alleges the Ukrainian Armed Forces shot the plane down using an anti-aircraft missile system located in the village of Lyptsi in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region.
The statement also claims that Russian military radar facilites “detected the launch of two Ukrainian missiles.” The Russian authorities previously reported that the Il-17’s crew and all of its passengers were killed in the crash.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the Ukrainian authorities knew that “Ukrainian military personnel would be taken by a military transport aircraft today to the Belgorod airfield, in accordance with established practice.” The ministry said the exchange was scheduled to take place in the latter half of the day on January 24 at the Kolotilovka border checkpoint.
The ministry’s statement went on to say that the “Kyiv regime took this step with the goal of blaming Russia for the destruction of Ukrainian soldiers.”
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry has confirmed that a POW exchange was scheduled for Wednesday, but a Ukrainian source familiar with the exchange process told Meduza that there is so far no information to substantiate the claim that the crashed plane contained POWs.
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