KIEV, August 2 (RIA Novosti) – Officials of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry are soon to be charged over shooting down a Ukrainian Air Force plane Il-76 near the city of Luhansk in June, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Vitaly Yarema said on Saturday.
“As for the Il-76 aircraft, as far as I know, charges will soon be filed against the Defense Ministry officials who allowed this crime to be committed,” Yarema stressed at a press conference.
He also noted that now the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Ukrainian Security Service have opened more than 1,500 cases in connection with numerous breaches throughout the course of the special military operation in the country’s southeastern regions, launched by the authorities in Kiev back in April to suppress a growing independence movement among local citizens.
Some 150 people have already been held liable for criminal violations.
Ukrainian strategic airlifter Ilyushin IL-76, belonging to the Ukrainian Air Force was shot down near Luhansk on June 14. A total of 49 Ukraine’s troops died in the crash.
Ukrainian forces claimed that the plane had been shot down by independence supporters. The self-defense forces announced that the aircraft had been downed with a missile, launched from the territory of the airport, controlled by the Ukrainian army.
