A senior Russian politician has said Ukrainian military intelligence had been given a 15-minute warning before a Russian military transport plane carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) entered an area where it was shot down yesterday.
Moscow accuses Kyiv of downing the Ilyushin Il-76 plane in Russia's Belgorod region, killing all 74 people on board, including 65 captured Ukrainian soldiers en route to be swapped for Russian POWs. Ukraine has neither confirmed nor denied the assertion, but has demanded an international investigation.
"The Ukrainian side was officially warned, and 15 minutes before the plane entered the zone they were given complete information, which they received and the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Armed Forces confirmed receipt of,"Andrei Kartapolov told fellow politicians, according to the ruling United Russia party.
"We all know very well what happened next," added Mr Kartapolov, a former general with close links to the defence ministry who now heads Russia's parliamentary defence committee.
His assertion contradicted a statement by Ukrainian military intelligence that Russia had not informed it about the flight arrangements.
Ukrainian military intelligence spokesperson Andriy Yusov reiterated today, in comments to Radio Svoboda, that Kyiv had received neither a written nor verbal request from Russia to refrain from attacks in the airspace where the plane was downed.
Mr Yusov added that two other Russian military transport planes, An-26 and An-72, had also been in the airspace at the time.
"Unfortunately, we can assume various scenarios, including provocation, as well as the use of Ukrainian prisoners as a human shield for transporting ammunition and weapons for S-300systems (being used in the war)," he said.
Conflicting narratives from both sides are a daily feature of a war now nearing the end of its second year. But the stakes are especially high in relation to yesterday's incident, the deadliest of its kind to take place on Russia's own internationally recognised territory.
Fragments found
Fragments of what appears to be a missile have been found at the site where the plane crashed in Russia's southwestern Belgorod region near the border with Ukraine, the TASS state news agency cited emergency services as saying today.
Moscow has cast the downing of the plane as a Ukrainian "terrorist act".
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said yesterday that greater clarity was needed about what happened, particularly when it came to who was on board, and he accused Russia of "playing with the lives of Ukrainian prisoners".
"It is obvious that the Russians are playing with the lives of Ukrainian prisoners, with the feelings of their relatives and with the emotions of our society," Mr Zelensky said in an evening address on the incident.
He did not confirm or deny Russia's claims, but said it had been a "very difficult day".
He called for an international investigation, an appeal echoed today by Ukraine's ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets.
"But I am convinced that... the Russians will make loud statements but will not allow anyone in.
"They will not hand over any materials for analysis and will simply blame Ukraine," Mr Lubinets told national television.
Russia has sole access to the site of the crash, where TV pictures showed debris scattered over snowy fields.
TASS said the plane's black boxes had been recovered and would be flown to Moscow for examination at a defence ministry laboratory.
The United Nations Security Council is due to convene at 10pm tonight in response to a Russian call for a meeting to establish "the reasons behind the Ukrainian criminal act".
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Ukrainian civilian casualties of the war ticked up yesterday, with two people, including a 16-year-old, killed and nine wounded when a Russian rocket hit Girnyk village in the eastern Donetsk region, Donetsk regional head Vadim Filachkine said, accusing Moscow of targeting civilians.
A strike in the southern city of Kherson wounded six people, local officials said.
The issue of prisoners of war is sensitive in both countries.
Despite full-scale hostilities, the two sides have carried out 49 prisoner exchanges since the conflict began almost two years ago.
Kyiv says more than 8,000 Ukrainians remain in Russian captivity, including civilians.
In 2022, Russia and Ukraine accused each other of carrying out deadly bombardments on a jail holding dozens of captured Ukrainian servicemen in Kremlin-controlled Olenivka, in Ukraine's Donetsk region.
Since Moscow launched large-scale hostilities in Ukraine in February 2022, several Russian military aircraft have crashed, and Ukraine has also claimed to have shot down Russian war planes.
In Russia, the plane carrying Wagner mercenary group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin crashed last August on a flight from Moscow to St Petersburg.
Moscow denied involvement, claiming instead that the plane crashed because its passengers detonated a grenade on board.
