Ukraine’s Security Service opens investigation into Russian military plane crash
Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) says it has opened a criminal investigation under an article on “violations of the laws and customs of war” into the crash of the Il-76 Russian military plane in Russia’s Belgorod region, report RBC Ukraine, Ukrainska Pravda, and BBC News Russian.
On January 24, an Il-76 military transport aircraft crashed in the Korochansky District of Russia’s Belgorod region near the Ukrainian border. The Russian Defense Ministry reported that there were 74 people on board: 65 Ukrainian POWs, three Russian military personnel, and six crew members. According to Russian authorities, all of them were killed in the crash. The Russian Defense Ministry accused Ukrainian military personnel of shooting down the aircraft.
Ukrainian authorities neither confirmed nor denied the Russian Defense Ministry’s claim that there were Ukrainian POWs on the plane. Ukraine's Main Intelligence Directorate confirmed that a prisoner exchange was planned for that day. The agency said it did not have “reliable and exhaustive information” about who was on board the Il-76.
On the evening of January 24, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukraine “will insist on international investigation” into the crash. Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov responded by saying that he agreed with the need for an investigation “if [Zelensky] means an international investigation into the criminal actions of the Kyiv regime.”
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