UN unable to confirm if downed Russian Il-76 transport plane carried Ukrainian PoWs
UN cannot establish whether Ukrainian prisoners of war were on board the Russian Il-76 transport plane, the organization's Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary Di Carlo said.
The aircraft crashed in Russia's Belgorod Oblast on Wednesday,
"The UN is unable to verify these reports or the circumstances of the disaster. It is obvious that the incident occurred in the context of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing war," said Di Carlo.
Шn recent weeks, the scale and intensity of attacks on Ukraine have increased, which indicates the "dangerous trajectory of the war".
Deputy Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the UN Khrystyna Hayovyshyn said that Ukraine was not informed about the transportation of its prisoners of war on the Il-76 plane.
"If the fact is confirmed, it will be evidence of Russia's first use of people as human shields to cover the transportation of ammunition, which is used to hit Ukrainian cities," she stated.
Hayovyshyn also noted that military transport planes of the Russian Federation are a "legitimate target of the Armed Forces of Ukraine."
On January 24, a Russian Il-76 crashed in Russia's Belgorod Oblast. The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation stated that there were allegedly Ukrainian prisoners of war on board the downed plane. Ukraine's Defense Intelligence said they did not have verified information about who exactly was on board, but confirmed that a prisoner exchange was indeed supposed to take place that day.
Russian propagandists published lists of 65 prisoners of war who were allegedly on board, but there are names of people who were exchanged as early as January 3. Ukraine's spy agency says that they will not comment on the data from propagandists as the lists should be made public by the official government agencies of the Russian Federation.
President Voldymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukraine will insist on an international investigation.
The Security Service of Ukraine opened a criminal investigation into the downing of the Il-76 – under the article on violation of the laws and customs of war.