[ad_1] A Russian military plane has crashed at the country’s border with Ukraine, with 74 people including prisoners of war believed to have been ki
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A Russian military plane has crashed at the country’s border with Ukraine, with 74 people including prisoners of war believed to have been killed.
The Ilyushin Il-76 transporter, a Soviet-era warplane, went down in Russia’s Belgorod region at its border with Ukraine on Wednesday morning, local time.
Russia’s defence ministry has claimed the plane was carrying 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war who were being transported to the border for a prisoner swap.
The plane was also carrying six crew members and three other people, the ministry said. It said everyone on board — 74 people in total — was killed in the crash.
It was not immediately clear what caused the plane to crash.
An unverified video circulating on social media, purportedly of the incident, appears to show a plane falling from the sky and erupting into flames when it hits the ground.
A thick plume of black smoke then begins to bloom.
An investigation is underway with Russian officials sent to the crash site “in order to establish the causes of the disaster,” Russia’s defence ministry said.
Russia has blamed Ukraine for the attack, saying it was carried out by missiles supplied by the West.
Russian politician Vyacheslav Volodin alleged the plane had been “shot down” by Kyiv.
“They shot their own soldiers in the air. Their own,” Mr Volodin said.
“Our pilots, who were carrying out a humanitarian mission, were shot down.”
Retired general Andrei Kartapolov, a member of the Russian parliament, said the missiles that took down the plane were types that had been supplied to Ukraine by the West.
Neither man provided sources for his claims.
Ukraine, meanwhile, warned against trusting unverified information from Russia and other sources.
“We emphasise that the enemy is actively conducting information special operations against Ukraine aimed at destabilising Ukrainian society,” Ukraine’s prisoners of war co-ordination group said on Telegram.
The country has not commented directly on the crash.
It comes after Ukraine claimed to have shot down two Russian aircraft earlier this month, costing the Russian military more than $500 million.
The Ukrainian army said an A-50 spy plane and an Ilyushin Il-22 airborne command post had been destroyed over the Sea of Azov.
The A-50 was believed to be one of just a handful of early warning and control planes in the Russian fleet.
Officials estimate A-50s are worth about £260 million (A$501.8 million).
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