The Russian Defense Ministry claimed that the transport plane was carrying 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war and accused Ukraine of shooting it down. The claims could not be independently verified.
www.nytimes.com
A large Russian military transport plane crashed on Wednesday in the Belgorod region near the border with Ukraine killing everyone onboard, the Russian Defense Ministry
said in a statement, accusing Ukraine of shooting down the plane with missiles.
The Defense Ministry said that the plane had been carrying 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war who were being transferred to the region from a military airport near Moscow to be exchanged for Russian service personnel. It accused Ukrainian forces of launching two missiles from the nearby Kharkiv region of Ukraine that struck the aircraft. The plane was also carrying six crew members and three other individuals, the ministry said.
The Russian claims could not be independently verified.