Russia 'faked deaths of 65 Ukrainian prisoners in propaganda stunt plane crash'

Russia claims Ukrainian prisoners of war were on the crashed Il-76 plane

Ukraine has rejected Russian claims that 65 captured Ukrainian soldiers were killed onboard the transport plane that was downed this week near Belgogrod.

Ukrainian officials believe the incident to have been a propaganda stunt by Russia and that the Ilyushin II-76 was not transporting PoWs.

The Russian side claimed the transport plane was shot down while delivering captured Ukrainian troops to a prisoner exchange.

Western officials are said to share Kyiv’s doubts over the Russian claims with questions asked over the accuracy of the passenger manifest produced by Moscow.

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Ukrainian human rights commissioner Dmytro Lubinets said: “We found Ukrainian citizens on the list who have already been exchanged.

“Also, if there were photographs and videos of our PoWs (at the crash site) Russia would already have posted it.

“There are not any signs that there were such a large number of people on the plane.”

The Russian Ilyushin Il-76 crashed on January 24 in the city of Belgogrod near the Ukrainian border.

Ukrainian military sources boasted of shooting down the Russian military aircraft using S-300 air defence missiles but later rowed back on the claim.

Shortly before the crash, Belgorod Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said on his Telegram channel that a “missile alert” had been triggered in the region.

President Zelensky said Ukraine would push for an international investigation of what happened, saying: “It is necessary to establish all the facts, as much as possible, considering that the plane crash occurred on Russian territory – beyond our control.”

He added: “It’s obvious Russians are playing with lives of Ukrainian PoWs, with feelings of their relatives and emotions of our society.”

At a news conference at the United Nations on Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, saying he had “no concern” about the international community believing Moscow’s allegations.