Zelenskyy accuses Russia of ‘playing with lives’ after POW plane downed

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Moscow of “playing with the lives of Ukrainian prisoners”, following a deadly plane crash in western Russia. 

Ukraine’s president has called for an international inquiry into Wednesday’s crash that killed all 74 people onboard.

Russia claims the passengers were Ukrainian prisoners of war headed for a swap. 

The Il-76 plane was downed on Wednesday in the Belgorod region near Ukraine’s border, with 65 Ukrainian POWs, six Russian crew and three escorts on board. 

Moscow has called for an urgent UN Security Council meeting into the incident, accusing Kyiv of shooting it down. 

Russia has offered no evidence about the crash. Ukraine has said it was looking into the incident but did not immediately provide any information. Instead, it cautioned against sharing “unverified information.”

Videos of the plane crashing shared on social media show the aircraft falling from the sky in a snowy, rural area. A huge blaze can be seen rising from the spot where the plane crashed.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Russia wanted to discuss the circumstances of a plane crash and that the full facts were still being verified.

“Ukrainian prisoners of war were transported to the Belgorod region to carry out the next exchange agreed between Moscow and Kyiv,” he said. 

“Instead of this exchange taking place, the Ukrainian side attacked this plane with anti-aircraft missiles from the Kharkiv region, which became fatal.”

Since Russia’s invasion almost two years ago, Moscow and Kyiv have traded conflicting accusations on a range of events. 

Establishing the facts has often been difficult, both because of the constraints of a war zone and because each side tightly controls information.

Lavrov also stated that Russia was not concerned if foreign media didn’t believe the details surrounding the crash. 

He added that Russia had nothing to discuss with the United States, calling speculation that Russia intended to attack Europe “nonsense.”

“We’ve seen the reports, but we’re not in any position to confirm them,” said US Council spokesman John Kirby about the incident.

Another US official said it was unclear whether there were Ukrainian POWs aboard the crashed plane.

Russia’s military has claimed the Ukrainian prisoners were being flown to the region for an exchange when the plane was downed at 11:15 a.m. local time.

Ukrainian military intelligence confirmed a swap was due to take place, but said it had no information about who was on the plane. 

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Moscow didn’t ask for specific airspace to be kept safe for a certain length of time, as has happened in past exchanges, it said in a statement.

In a video message shared on X, formerly Twitter, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that confusing reports around the crash showed that “the Russians are playing with the lives of Ukrainian prisoners of war, the feelings of their relatives, and the emotions of our society.”

The Ukrainian leader urged for “all facts” to be established. “As much as possible, given that the aircraft crashed in Russian territory that is beyond our control,” he said.

“Right now, the key word is facts. I received reports from the Commander-in-Chief and General Staff on the use of our air force. Military Intelligence is clarifying the fate of all prisoners of war. Security Service investigates all circumstances. I also instructed Ukraine’s Foreign Minister to inform partners based on the information available to Ukraine,” he continued.

“Our state will insist on an international investigation.”

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