Officials in Ukraine say Russia has provided no credible evidence to back its claims that their own forces shot down a military transport plane carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war who were to be swapped for Russian POWs.

Officials in Ukraine said Russia has provided no credible evidence to back its claims that Ukrainian forces shot down a military transport plane that Moscow says was carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war who were to be swapped for Russian POWs.

The Ukrainian agency that deals with prisoner exchanges said late Friday that Russian officials had “with great delay” provided it with a list of the 65 Ukrainians who Moscow said had died in the plane crash in Russia’s Belgorod region on Wednesday.

Ukraine’s Coordination Staff for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said relatives of the named POWs were unable to identify their loved ones in crash site photos provided by Russian authorities. The agency’s update cited Ukraine’s military intelligence chief, Lt. Col. Kyrylo Budanov, as saying that Kyiv had no verifiable information about who was on the plane.

  • andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    211·
    10 months ago

    My comment, 4 days ago:

    Does anyone transport POWs by plane? Isn’t it too dangerous and doesn’t usually require the speed air provides? They mentioned 74 people total and say 65 were POWs. Then it leaves 9 people of personel including a crew of 5 (based on wikipedia), so did it have just 4 guards? I’m not well versed in math or military logistics, but it sounds sketchy. Maybe POWs here are mentioned to make other side worried (for if they downed it, per the OP’s article) and cover it with a tint of conspiracy, while it was e.g. military cargo or personel? Deflecting the argument is pretty much what enemies do.

    I’d wait before more details show up, like satelite imagery of a crash site before making conclusions. For now this potato is just too hot.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilyushin_Il-76#Specifications_(Il-76TD)

    This whole thing is probably a stunt to be, like, haha ukrainians killed their pows!, and cover the fact another important aerial vehicle was downed. Why to do that?

    There was a recent trend of destroying standing and flying warplanes. Inverting it is a good way to mislead the discussion.

    And, once in a while, they’ve found a way to make many people scratch their head thinking about it.

    • HappycamperNZ@lemmy.worldEnglish
      171·
      10 months ago

      While I get your sentiment, let’s call it what it is.

      Murder of Prisoners of War. Failure to protect non-combatants. Another war crime for the tally.

  • Jeff, my name is Jeff@lemmy.worldEnglish
    52·
    10 months ago

    I’m afraid to know how to translate this Russian lie. They said Ukraine downed a plane with prisoners to put the blame on Ukrainian for those dead. It’s obviously BS there was no plane but like that they can justify the death of X amount of prisoners. Bodies have been disposed to hide torture/malnutrition etc.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    2·
    10 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    Ukraine’s Coordination Staff for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said relatives of the named POWs were unable to identify their loved ones in crash site photos provided by Russian authorities.

    Social media users in the Belgorod region posted a video Wednesday that showed a plane falling from the sky in a snowy, rural area, and a huge ball of fire erupting where it apparently hit the ground.

    Kyiv has neither confirmed nor denied that its forces downed a Russian military transport plane that day, and Russia’s claim that the crash killed Ukrainian POWs couldn’t be independently verified.

    In a live interview with the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Red Cross Media Relations Officer Oleksandr Vlasenko also remarked that “very little time” had passed between the initial reports of the crash and Moscow declaring it was ready to return the bodies of the Ukrainian POWs.

    Kuleba and Landsbergis also said that Kyiv and its EU partners were inching closer to making more funds from the European Peace Facility available for long-term weapons, ammunition and other military aid deliveries for Ukraine.

    Also on Saturday, authorities in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region said that a group of Russian saboteurs shot dead two civilians, a brother and sister, living in a border village less than five kilometers (three miles) from Russia.

    The original article contains 1,098 words, the summary contains 217 words. Saved 80%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • Sprokes@lemmy.worldEnglish
    23·
    10 months ago

    I wonder why Ukraine does not want to say that they are the ones that shot the plane. They just keep saying Russia is lying (which certainly true).