Russia says Ukrainian military intelligence was given a 15 minute
warning before a Russian military transport plane carrying Ukrainian prisoners
of war entered an area where it was shot down
on Wednesday. Senior Russian lawmaker Andrei Karpov on Thursday
in conditions of modern communication systems. Upon receiving this
information, there should have been a command air stop
sent through the specific area and everything would have been
as normal. Obviously, that didn't happen. Instead
, the command was sent to open fire and the
plane with our crew and their servicemen who would now
never return home was shot down. That is the
current key regime has the blood of their soldiers and
officers on their hands. Moscow accuses Kiev of downing
the Aleutian Il 76 plane in Russia's Belgorod region,
killing all 74 people on board. 65 of those
were captured Ukrainian soldiers. It says en route to
be swapped for Russian pows. The incident is the
deadliest of its kind to take place on Russia's internationally
recognized territory. Karlov's assertion contradicts a statement by Ukrainian
military intelligence that Russia had not informed it about the
flight arrangements. Ukraine has neither confirmed nor denied that
it shot down the plane but has demanded an international
investigation. It does though accuse Russia of using its
air defense systems in the region when the plane crashed
. Ukrainian military intelligence spokesperson Andrei Yo reiterated that Kyiv
had not been asked by Russia to refrain from attacks
in the airspace where the plane was downed. There
was no mention yesterday of Belgrade airport as an object
that was supposed to be used during the preparation of
this exchange. Moscow has cast the downing of the
plane as a Ukrainian terrorist attack. Ukrainian President Volodymyr
Zelensky said on Wednesday that clarity about what happened was
needed. It is evident that the Russians are playing
with the lives of Ukrainian prisoners with the feelings of
their families and with the emotions of our society.
It is necessary to establish all clear facts to the
extent possible considering that the plane crash occurred on Russian
territory beyond our control. Russia has sole access to
the sites of the crash. Citing Russia's emergency services
state news agency task said fragments of what appears to
be a missile have been found at the crash site
near the border with Ukraine. It also added that
the plane's black boxes had been recovered and would be
flown to Moscow for examination. Conflicting narratives from both
sides have become a daily feature of the war in
Ukraine which is now nearing the end of its second 00:02:55.088 --> year