Ukraine claims Russian military plane crash may be ‘planned, deliberate’ action by Moscow

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) - Ukraine’s military intelligence on Wednesday claimed that the reports on a Russian military plane crash earlier in the day could be a “planned and deliberate” action by Moscow to “destabilize” the situation in Ukraine and “weakening international support for our state.”

On Telegram, Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence said there was supposed to be an exchange of prisoners between Ukraine and Russia which did not take place, adding that it currently does not have “reliable and comprehensive information” about who exactly was on board the plane and how many.

Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed a military plane en route to Ukraine for a prisoner exchange was shot down by the country’s armed forces in the region of Belgorod, killing all 65 Ukrainian servicemen on board, as well as its six crew members and three escorts.

The ministry called the incident "a terrorist attack" organized with the goal of accusing Russia of killing Ukrainian servicemen, claiming that Ukrainian authorities were "well aware of the planned transportation" with the purpose of further exchange.

The Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence statement said that Kyiv “fulfilled all agreements” for the preparation of the prisoner exchange, adding that the Russian servicemen were “delivered in time to the designated exchange point, where they were kept safe.”

“According to the agreements, the Russian side had to ensure the safety of our defenders. At the same time, the Ukrainian side was not informed about the need to ensure the safety of the airspace in the area of the city of Belgorod in a certain period of time, as was repeatedly done in the past,” it said.

The statement claimed that Ukraine was not informed about the number of vehicles, routes and forms of delivery of prisoners further claiming this may be a "deliberate action by Russia aimed at creating a threat to the life and safety of prisoners.”

“Landing a transport aircraft in a 30-kilometer war zone cannot be safe and must be discussed by both sides in any case, because otherwise it puts the entire exchange process at risk,” it went on to say.