During the war between Russia and Ukraine, Russia recently said that Ukraine shot down one of their military transport planes. They say that this event killed nine other people and 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war.
The military plane was an Il-76, and Ukraine’s military shot it down on Wednesday as it flew from Moscow to Belgorod. Because Belgorod is close to the border with Ukraine, the Ukrainian military has been after it nonstop for the past few weeks. People use this kind of plane to transport goods, people, and military gear and weapons.
The Defense Ministry said, “On board were 65 captured Ukrainian army soldiers being taken to the Belgorod region for exchange, along with six crew members and three escorts.”
Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of the region, wrote on Telegram, “The plane crashed in a field near a town.” The whole crew died.
The Russian government says that three missiles made in either the US or Germany were fired at the plane and hit it. Russian officials and the Defense Ministry said that the attack was planned to go after the exchange of prisoners that was happening at the time.
Ukraine said they had “no reliable or comprehensive information” about who was on the plane or how many people were on it, even though this was true. A spokesman from the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukraine Ministry of Defense, Andriy Yusov, did say that they were sure that Russia and Ukraine would trade prisoners on Wednesday.
Prior to this attack, Russia had said that Ukraine was responsible for other attacks like the one in December that killed 25 people. Last week, there was also an attack on Russia that killed 27 people, but Ukraine says they had nothing to do with it.
