Russia: Il-76 had 65 Ukrainian POWs on board. Ukraine: Il-76 carried S-300 missiles

Everyone on board the Il-76 plane that crashed near Belgorod on January 24 was killed, Governor of the Belgorod region Vyacheslav Gladkov said.

According to him, the transport plane crashed in the Korochansky district of the Belgorod region not far from the village of Yablonovo. The crash site was cordoned off, emergency services are currently working on the site.

Russian Foreign Ministry said that Kyiv committed an act of insane barbarity by shooting down the Il-76. Ukraine's most recent crime calls into question a possibility of any agreements, the department said.

The Il-76 crashed in the Belgorod region on Wednesday, January 24. Reportedly, there were 65 captured soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on board, as well as three accompanying persons. According to MP Andrei Kartapolov, Ukraine shot down the Il-76 by launching three Patriot or IRIS-T surface-to-air missiles.

Russia and Ukraine were to exchange prisoners of war on January 24 — 192 to 192 POWs. Another Il-76 plane with 80 Ukrainian prisoners on board was ordered to return to its base after the plane crash.

The Il-76 was shot down in the sky over the Belgorod region because the aircraft was flying unprotected, without the support of Russian fighters and electronic warfare forces. It was an aircraft that performed regular humanitarian missions such as transporting prisoners of war.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine were informed about the scheduled flight of the aircraft.

It is believed that Ukraine fired a PAC-2 missile from the Kharkiv region from a maximum distance of 130-140 km.

According to the Ukrainian side, the Il-76 was transporting missiles for S-300 systems, which the Russian side uses for attacks on the Kharkiv region.

Judging by the video of the crash, the Il-76 was flying in a direction away from Belgorod; the distance between the site of the alleged missile attack and the crash site is a little more than one kilometre.

First bodies of those killed in the Il-76 crash in the Belgorod region were found within the radius of two kilometres from the crash site, Baza Telegram channel said.