Intelligence agencies in Ukraine have said a prisoner swap was meant to take place today in the wake of a mystery deadly Russian plane crash which killed 65 captured Ukrainian soldiers.
Moscow has accused Ukraine of shooting down the Russian Ilyushin-76 military transport plane which exploded in a fireball around 8.15am (GMT), 11.15am local time, near the village of Yablonovo in the Belgorod region of Russia close to the Ukrainian border. Ukraine have so far not confirmed the cause of the incident.
However, the Ukrainian intelligence agency said it had kept the Russian prisoners it held safe for the prisoner swap and that it did not have any “reliable” or “comprehensive information” about who exactly was on board the doomed plane, adding that it had not been informed about any aircraft entering the airspace around Belgorod by the Russians.
In a statement the agency said: “For its part, Ukraine has fulfilled all agreements for the proper preparation of the exchange. The Russian captured servicemen were delivered on time to the designated place for exchange, where they were kept safe.
“According to the agreements, the Russian side had to ensure the safety of our defenders. At the same time, the Ukrainian side was not informed about the need to ensure the safety of the airspace in the area of the city of Belgorod in a certain period of time, as was repeatedly done in the past.
“Ukraine was not informed about the number of vehicles, routes and forms of delivery of prisoners. It is known that prisoners are delivered by air, rail and road transport.”
The Ukrainians said the lack of information given about the potential POWs “may indicate deliberate actions by Russia aimed at creating a threat to the life and safety of prisoners”.
It continued: “Landing a transport aircraft in a 30-kilometre war zone cannot be safe and must be discussed by both sides in any case, because otherwise it puts the entire exchange process at risk.
“Based on this, we may be talking about planned and deliberate actions of the Russian Federation with the aim of destabilising the situation in Ukraine and weakening international support for our state.”
The Russian military said the POWs were being flown to the region for a prisoner swap when the plane was downed. The Il-76 is designed to carry up to 225 troops, cargo, military equipment and weapons, according to Russia’s military export agency.
Russian officials and lawmakers expressed outrage and questioned whether there should be further prisoner swaps. President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in the morning that he could not comment on the crash because he didn’t have enough information about it.
There was no comment from the Kremlin later in the day. Shortly before the crash, Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on his Telegram channel a “missile alert” had been triggered in the region.
