Ukraine: No proof POWs aboard downed plane
KYIV, Ukraine — Russia has not provided evidence that Ukrainian prisoners of war were aboard a military plane that was downed Wednesday, Ukrainian officials told relatives of captured soldiers Friday, as the warring countries continued to trade blame over the murky incident.
Lt. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, met Friday with relatives of the prisoners of war who Russia claimed were being transported on the Ilyushin Il-76 transport plane that crashed in Russia’s Belgorod region near the border with Ukraine.
Russia claims that the plane was carrying 65 Ukrainian POWs who were set to be exchanged that day.
Budanov told the POW families that Russia asked for the prisoners’ relatives to submit DNA to match to the bodies of detainees allegedly killed onboard, while not providing any evidence of their remains, according to two people present at the meeting.
Ukraine has rejected that request, Budanov said, according to the two relatives who attended the meeting and who spoke on the condition of anonymity for security reasons.
“The puzzle doesn’t fit,” Budanov told the families, according to the mother of one of the POWs. She added that the exchange was supposed to involve more than 190 prisoners, matching a statement by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday. The Russian Defense Ministry has said that just 65 detainees were on the plane.
Putin, in his first comments about the incident, said Friday that Ukraine shot down the plane with its own military personnel on board and that Russia would make the results of its investigation public “so that people in Ukraine know what happened.”
“I don’t know if it was on purpose or by mistake, but it is obvious that they did it,” Putin said, adding without evidence that the Ukrainians probably used an American or European air-defense system. Western countries generally have prohibited Kyiv from using their weapons to strike targets on Russian territory.
“We were transporting their citizens, their military personnel, but no, they struck there,” Putin said. “Our only regrets are with regards to our pilots.”
But more than 48 hours after the plane fell from the sky and charred a large swath of earth, Russia has provided scant evidence of its claims. Ukrainian officials said that despite the Kremlin’s rhetoric, Moscow is blocking an international investigation.
Russian political and military officials, while quick to blame Ukraine, have not explained how their military jet was left vulnerable to being destroyed in midair, a highly unusual occurrence in a war in which each side has sophisticated antiaircraft weapons. Ukraine has targeted Russian planes, but usually while they are on the ground.
Ukrainian officials maintain that they have not seen proof that dozens of people died aboard the aircraft.
A new clip released by Russian state media Friday purported to show the passports of some Ukrainians alleged to have been on board, but they were not shown at the crash site, and parts of the video were blurred. In another part of the clip, a Russian official is seen zipping up a black body bag.
Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for Ukraine’s military intelligence, told Ukrainian media Thursday that just five bodies had been brought to the local morgue in Belgorod. The claim could not be independently verified. Russia has said that in addition to the POWs, there were six crew members and three other people aboard.
Ukraine has not directly confirmed that it shot down the plane, but it has not denied involvement and has hinted that it was responsible, calling the aircraft a military target that was regularly used to ferry missiles to be launched at Ukrainian cities.
Officials in Kyiv have insisted they do not know whether POWs were on the plane. Instead, they have called for Russia to provide more information to Kyiv and to international organizations and investigators.
Margarita Simonyan, head of the Russian state propaganda channel RT, published a list of names and birth dates that she said documented the Ukrainian POWs on board, but news outlets quickly reported that some of those named by Simonyan appeared to be prisoners released in previous swaps.
In a statement Thursday, the International Committee of the Red Cross said that it had not received a list of the prisoners who were set to be exchanged.