An Il-76 military transport plane crashed in the Belgorod region of Russia. The Russian Ministry of Defense said there were 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war on board.
The United States is collecting information that should establish the real reasons for the crash of the Russian Il-76 aircraft, but so far the White House has not officially commented on the event. John Kirby, coordinator of the White House National Security Council, said this on Thursday, January 25.
“We are still trying to collect more information about this fall in Russia,” he said.
Kirby added that there has been no official statement on the matter in the United States.
In this regard, the Deputy Press Secretary of the US State Department, Vedant Patel, said that the United States is working with colleagues in the Ukrainian government to establish specific facts.
“President Zelensky called for an international investigation. Since this happened in Russia, it is very difficult to verify what really happened,” he said.
A State Department spokesman said Russia does not allow a free press or independent journalists, “so it’s difficult to confirm.”
We remind you that on January 24, a Russian Il-76 plane crashed in the Belgorod region of the Russian Federation. The Russian Ministry of Defense says there are alleged Ukrainian prisoners on the plane being transported for another exchange. However, Ukrainskaya Pravda, citing sources in the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, reported that the Il-76 contained missiles for the S-300 air defense system, which often exploded Russian in Kharkov from Belgorod region.
Later, the Main Intelligence Directorate confirmed that a prisoner exchange was supposed to take place that day, but it did not happen. And the Russians published a list of 65 Ukrainian prisoners who were said to have died during the crash. As Ukrainian journalists found out, the data of at least 17 people from the published list correspond to the data of 17 fighters of the Ukrainian Armed Forces who were exchanged on January 3.
According to Andrei Yusov, a representative of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, military-political VIPs of the Russian Federation were supposed to be on board the Il-76, but at the last moment the FSB forbade them to board.
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Source: korrespondent
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.