A Russian military transport plane with more than seventy people on board is said to have crashed over the Belgorod region on the border with Ukraine on Wednesday. The Ministry of Defense in Moscow announced this. However, the Ukrainian report is different.
News agency TASS reported that there were 9 Russian crew members and 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war on board the Ilyushin Il-76 machine. The prisoners were flown to a planned exchange.
Videos on social media allegedly show the crash:
However, reports from Ukraine indicate that air defenses shot down the plane and that it was carrying S-300 missiles intended to be dropped on Ukrainian cities. The information provided by both parties cannot be independently verified.
The Ilyushin Il-76 is a military transport aircraft designed for the transportation of troops, cargo, military equipment and weapons. She has a normal crew of five and can carry up to 90 passengers.
Repeated incidents in Belgorod
According to Russian information, there have recently been repeated Ukrainian attacks in the Belgorod region, which borders the disputed eastern Ukrainian region of Kharkiv. Moscow had already reported a large-scale Ukrainian attack on Belgorod on December 30, which killed at least 25 people and injured more than 100. Ukraine generally does not officially claim responsibility for attacks in Russia.
Source: Krone
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