Moscow: Ukraine was warned 15 minutes before the plane crash; Kyiv calls for international investigations

Andrei Kartapolov, a senior lawmaker and former general in Russia, said on Thursday, January 25, that the Ukrainian military intelligence was warned 15 minutes before the downing of a Russian military transport plane carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war. Moscow accuses Ukraine of shooting down the Il-76 aircraft in the Belgorod region of Russia near the border of the two countries. In this incident, all 74 occupants of the plane, including 65 Ukrainian soldiers captured on their way to a prisoner exchange with Russian captives, were killed. According to Reuters, Ukraine has neither confirmed nor denied this claim but has called for an international investigation. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday, January 24, demanded full clarification regarding the reasons for the crash of the Russian plane in the border area of Russia, stating that Moscow is 'playing with the lives of Ukrainian prisoners.' On Thursday, he also called for international investigations into the matter, especially since the occupants of the plane were Ukrainian. According to Reuters, the statements of the senior Russian lawmaker contradict the Ukrainian military intelligence's statement that they did not receive any warning from Moscow regarding the flight of this aircraft. Andriy Yusov, spokesperson for Ukrainian military intelligence, emphasized on Thursday that Kyiv did not receive any written or verbal request from Russia to refrain from attacks in the airspace where the plane crashed. He added that two other Russian military transport planes were in the same airspace at that time. Andriy Yusov stated that other scenarios could also be imagined, including the use of Ukrainian prisoners as human shields for transporting ammunition and weapons for S-300 anti-aircraft systems. Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine's human rights commissioner, also emphasized Zelensky's call for investigations. He told Ukrainian national television, 'The Russians talk a lot but do not allow anyone to enter the crash site. They do not provide any pieces of it for examination and simply blame Ukraine.' Only Russia has access to the crash site, where television images show scattered debris on the snowy ground. TASS reported that the plane's black box has been found and will be sent to Moscow for examination at the Ministry of Defense laboratory.