An IL-76 transport plane of the Russian air forces with 65 Ukrainian prisoners who were being transported for exchange, the crew and accompanying persons crashed in Russia's Belgorod region, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday.
"At about 11:00 Moscow time [08:00 GMT], an IL-76 plane crashed in the Belgorod region during a scheduled flight. There were 65 captured servicemen of the Ukraine armed forces on board, transported to the Belgorod region for exchange, six crew members of the aircraft and three accompanying persons. A Russian air forces commission flew to the crash site to establish the causes of the disaster," the ministry said.
All people on board of an Il-76 transport plane that crashed in the Belgorod Region of Russia were killed, Vyacheslav Gladkov, the region's head, said on Wednesday.
"A transport plane crashed in the Korochansky district. It fell in a field near a populated area. All on board died," Gladkov wrote on Telegram.
The Ukrainian media reported that an Il-76 from the Russian Aerospace Forces was shot down near Belgorod by the Ukrainian armed forces. After the Russian Defense Ministry had revealed that Ukrainian POWs were being transported on board the plane for an exchange, the Ukrainian media edited the news and deleted the information about the Ukrainian military being responsible for the plane's destruction.
Speaker of Russia’s lower house Vyacheslav Volodin instructed lawmakers to prepare an appeal to the US Congress and Germany’s Bundestag in connection with the plane crash in order to show foreign parliamentarians for what purposes Kiev is using their military assistance, as he believes the Ukrainian military shot down the plane.
"There is a proposal to clarify which rockets and launchers were used, let's prepare an appeal to the US Congress and the German Bundestag so that lawmakers finally have an epiphany whom they are financing, whom they are helping. This is a Nazi regime, nourished by Biden, Macron, Scholz, and other politicians, they should realize their responsibility, and the members of the parliaments should declare impeachment," he said at the plenary session.
Volodin also suggested that the Duma's position on the issue be brought to the attention of national parliaments.
"Their soldiers were shot in the air... their mothers, wives, children were waiting there," Volodin added.
Another plane carrying 80 POWs that followed the downed IL-76 plane in the Belgorod region was turned back, the chairman of the State Duma Defense Committee, Andrey Kartapolov, said.
"A second IL-76 plane followed carrying roughly 80 more POWs, [but] it was turned back in time," Kartapolov said.
The Russian IL-76 transport plane is a military aircraft designed to transport large and heavy cargo over long distances. Equipped with four turbofan engines and a spacious cargo hold, it can carry up more than 40 tons of cargo to distances between 3,600 and 4,200 km, and has a cruising speed of 770-800 km per hour, making it one of the largest transport aircraft in service. The IL-76 is used by the Russian Aerospace Forces for a variety of purposes, including military transport, air-to-air refueling, and search and rescue.
