Moscow has accused Ukraine's military of shooting down a plane, which it says was carrying 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war.
The plane came down near the Russian city of Belgorod, close to the Ukrainian border. "On board were 65 captured Ukrainian army servicemen being transported for exchange, six crew members and three escorts," Russia says.
The local governor says there are no survivors - the BBC cannot yet verify who was on board, or what caused the plane to crash.
Ukraine does not rule out shooting down the plane, saying Kyiv hadn't been asked to ensure the "safety of airspace near the city of Belgorod" at the agreed time.
The plane was flying from the Chkalovsky air base near Moscow to Belgorod, Russia says.
Ukraine's implicit acknowledgement that it shot down plane
The Ukrainian military intelligence statement is implicit acknowledgement from Ukraine that it did shoot down the Russian military transport plane.
But crucially it says it has no verified information on who was on board.
The intelligence service confirmed that a prisoner swap was planned today. It says it would normally get advance information on the routes and transport Russia planned to use.
This time, Ukraine says, it was not told to keep the skies over Belgorod clear.
It suggests that may have been deliberate.
Meanwhile, the General Staff has underlined why Ukraine’s military would target a Russian cargo plane.
There’s been a big increase in missile attacks from the Belgorod region, especially on Ukraine’s second city of Kharkiv, hitting residential buildings there and killing civilians.
Planes like the Il-76 deliver the missiles which are then fired across the border by other planes.
There are still many questions about this crash, especially for the families of the thousands of Ukrainian soldiers captured and currently held in Russia.
They want to know for sure if there were prisoners of war on board that plane. And whether their relatives were among them.
Ukraine and Russia have taken part in a number of prisoner exchanges since the start of the war.
There have been 49 prisoner swaps since Russia launched its full-scale invasion nearly two years ago, with Ukraine securing the return of more than 2,800 people so far.
The biggest swap so far took place earlier this month, when Ukraine freed 248 Russian prisoners of war and Russia released 230 as part of a deal mediated by the United Arab Emirates.
More than 8,000 Ukrainians, both civilian and military, are still being held by Russia, according to Ukrainian officials - who also say tens of thousands of others are still missing.
The Russian defence ministry said earlier that a prisoner exchange had been due to take place on Wednesday afternoon at a border checkpoint 100km to the west of Belgorod.
0 Comments