Ukraine to probe Belgorod crash as Russia questions future prisoner swaps
Al Jazeera
Russia claims Ukraine shot down military transport plane in Belgorod, killing 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war on board.
Ukraine has opened a criminal investigation into the downing of a Russian military transport plane that Moscow said killed 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) as the Kremlin raised questions about future prisoner exchanges.
On Thursday, the Kremlin said that nobody could say how the IL-76 Russian Air Force plane crash in the Belgorod region would affect prisoner swaps shortly after Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of “playing with the lives” of prisoners.
Ukraine has not said whether its captured soldiers were killed – or if it was involved – in Wednesday’s shooting down of the plane.
In launching the probe, its SBU security service on Thursday said it was “currently taking a range of measures to clarify all the circumstances of the downing”.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov called the incident a “monstrous act”.
