A Russian Ilyushin-76 military transport plane has crashed in the southern Belgorod region on the border with Ukraine.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence said 65 captured Ukrainian army personnel were on the plane heading to Belgorod region for a prisoner exchange.
None of the details surrounding those on board can be independently verified. Reports say another nine people were on the plane, including six crew.
Ukraine’s general staff, quoted by the Ukrainska Pravda website however said the plane was transporting missiles for Russia’s S-300 air defence systems. It made no mention of prisoners of war.
Video shared on social media showed a plane going down followed by an explosion and a fireball near the village of Yablonovo, 70 kilometres to the north-east of the city of Belgorod, at around 11:00 local time (08:00 GMT).
Some Ukrainian media suggested initially that ill-fated plane may have been downed by Ukrainian forces, but those reports were later deleted.
Ukraine’s general staff claims that it did not have accurate information about the situation and that it was investigating the circumstances.
Belgorod regional governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov said he was aware of an “incident” but gave no further details.
Source: BBC
(Editor: Terverr Tyav)
