In Ukraine, the status of these 65 soldiers has not changed – they are considered prisoners of war, the Main Intelligence Directorate reported.
Ukraine has appealed to Russia for the return of the bodies of prisoners of war who allegedly died in the plane crash aboard the Il-76, but Moscow has not responded to these requests. The representative of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense Andrei Yusov announced this today, February 1, in a national telethon, Radio Liberty reports.
“This is a very complicated and dramatic issue. And yesterday’s exchange is almost the completion of the exchange that should take place on January 24, in addition to this list of 65 declared dead by the Russian Federation,” he said in the national telethon.
Yusov noted that in Ukraine the status of these 65 soldiers has not changed – they are considered prisoners of war, and Russia has not strengthened the process regarding an open international investigation.
We remind you that on January 24, an Il-76 military plane crashed in the Belgorod region of the Russian Federation. The Russian Ministry of Defense claimed that the plane allegedly contained Ukrainian prisoners taken for exchange. At the same time, the Ukrainian media said that the Il-76 was carrying missiles for the S-300 complexes.
The Main Intelligence Directorate confirmed that the exchange of prisoners was supposed to take place on January 24, but it did not happen. The Russians published a “list” of 65 Ukrainian prisoners who were said to have died during the crash.
However, the data of at least 17 people from the published list correspond to the data of 17 Ukrainian Armed Forces fighters who were exchanged on January 3.
Source: korrespondent
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