Illustrative image.
Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate was aware of the Russian Il-76 flight carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs), but didn’t deactivate its air defenses, the head of the State Duma’s Defense Committee Andrey Kartapolov told the media on January 25 while commenting on the plane’s crash in the Belgorod Region, according to TASS.
“The Ukrainian side had been officially notified. Fifteen minutes before the plane entered the zone, they were given full information, which they received and confirmed its receipt by the Main Intelligence Directorate,” Kartapolov said, noting that after that “there should have followed the command ‘Air, stop’ for a certain sector.”
“It was not issued. Instead, a command to open fire was given and the airplane with our crew and their soldiers was shot down,” he added.
The Kiev regime thus committed “another monstrous atrocity,” Kartapolov said, describing the incident which claimed the lives of 74 people, including 65 Ukrainian POWs.
“The Ukrainian air defense system shot down an Ilyushin-76 airplane carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war, who were to be exchanged for our guys on that day. We need a very detailed, international probe into this issue in order to find out whose air defense missile system was used, who was at the control panel, who made the decision and who gave the command,” he said.
Kartapolov also stressed that efforts to bring Russian POWs home from Ukraine will continue, despite the deadly incident.
“We cannot leave our guys to their own devices. This is why we will hold conversations with the devil himself and work even with the Evil One because we need to get our guys back. We have no choice but to engage in a conversation,” he said in response to a question.
The Il-72 was shot down by the Ukrainian military over Belgorod on January 24. Preliminary information indicates that it was targeted with an American-made MIM-104 Patriot long-range air defense system. This is yet to be confirmed.
A Russian emergency services official told TASS that the black boxes have been recovered from the wreckage of the downed Il-76, and the devices will be delivered to a special Russian Defense Ministry laboratory in Moscow for decoding on January 26.
“According to preliminary data, both flight recorders are intact enough to be decoded. On Friday [January 26], they will arrive [in Moscow] on a special flight for delivery to a Defense Ministry lab for decoding,” the official said.
The Russian Defense Ministry called the downing of the plane a “terrorist act” and stressed that Ukraine had prior knowledge of the transportation of POWs for the exchange, which was to take place at the Kolotilovka border checkpoint. According to the ministry, the Kiev regime shot down the plane in order to eventually accuse Moscow of the attack.
ukra-nazis deserve to die without mercy. no nazi prisioners
you have tried it and lost 40,000 hapless russian men killed and over 200,000 wounded. blame putin not ukies.
blame ukkies since there are 500000 less to blame.
according to war casualty details shown in ukronazistan tv, there are 1,265.500 + ukrainian kia s and mias. this info was shown appr. 8 weeks ago and channel showed it for 20 mins before it was ordered to take it down. picture of it was shown in sonar21.com or simplicius article.
it has been shot down b/c ua does not want to pay the money they owe the relatives. this way – if there is no dead body – there is no proof if the soldiers were killed. so no money and no pension for relatives, wifes, children. easy money for the nazi friends of the hamas (also nazis, sacrificing their people). open your eyes instead of you assses
e’ un messaggio per i soldati ucraini: ” non vi salverete se vi arrenderete “
it’s very surprising for a country sending its nation into a hopeless meat grinder to be shooting down pow planes…. no, it isn’t. just another form of murdering their own citizens. expect donbas civilians to be shelled some more. and another fake vaccine that just murders people.
if this murdering of their own pows doesn’t wake the herd in ukraine from their zombified state i don’t know what will.
the civilians cannot do anything. the nato butchers are slaughtering each one who do not follow the orders.
well the french resistance did something and the other underground fighters in the war those soldiers should be shooting their own officers.
jews want all slavs to be killed. they hate ukrainian as the they hate russians or poles or baltics. it suits them to provide ukraine with weapons to let the slavs kill each other. are ukrainians stupid ? yes, they are. are jews smart ? no, they are not but ruling slavs is so easy for them because of “inteligent” ukraine leadership like klitchko and other “celebrities” with iq 50. they only invested maidan and cookies and weapons paid with money printed out of the thin air. so easy.
for russia it takes a long time to understand something. i told 20 years before that west is not a “partner” but an enemy. i predicted a war between russia long ago. lavrov figured the truth about “partners” couple days ago but as for as war, it is mystery for him. it will take another 10 years for lavrov to figure out that “special operation” in ukraine is a genocide against all slavs. they will fight until the last pole, baltic, ukrainian and russian. is it really so hard to understand?
“why do you have to be so belligerent, humans?” – said the klaxosaur’s princess, right before mauling and biting off dr. franxx’s arms.
muricans were behind the order to shoot the plane down.
the german msm fake media military “experts” now lie around like saying plane was out of ukro air defense range, while it was only a feew dozent miles away from the ukro-rus border and so in full range of ukro s200, s300, buk or patriots. a propaganda distraction to awoid pressure and declining support for the ukros.
the air defence delivred from yankees is whit yankee operators !! now russian plane down, and the pow are considderd traitors by the cocain clown in kiev. imagine what they could tell the home front if reunited to there family???
instead, a command to open fire was given and the airplane with our crew and their soldiers was shot down,” ……………….mh17 anyone….
65 russian soldiers of special forces were killed by ukies. now russia is once again spreading same old stalinist propaganda from their dirty rhetoric machine. put your maskirovka to your own asshole, shoigu.
why would 65 russian special forces be on that aircraft you ignorant ape? even when those kiev maniacs are killing your own people you still have not woken up to who the real enemy is.
ah yes that how special forces travel… all group up in one plane…yup.