IL-76 disaster: In addition to the downed aircraft, there was at least one more—journalists.

This was reported by the Executive Director of the "Media Initiative for Human Rights," Tatyana Katrychenko, during a briefing at the Media Center Ukraine.

According to her, journalists were able to trace the route taken by the aircraft that crashed. It took off from Rostov-on-Don and was supposed to land at the airfield in Belgorod.

During the flight over the Belgorod region, there was at least one other aircraft, Katrychenko states, which was transporting prisoners of war from various detention facilities.

She shared that some prisoners were able to inform that prior to their transfer, they were moved by vans to an unknown airfield, then spent the night in a colony in Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, and were subsequently boarded onto a plane. However, after the crash of the first aircraft, this plane was turned back.

The Executive Director of the MIPCH reminds us that the day before the aviation disaster, it was known that Russia and Ukraine were planning to exchange 200 prisoners.

“If we consider how many people were on board one plane and the other, as well as those who might have been en route — since we found prisoners of war who were taken out of their cells the day before but were not boarded onto the plane — the figure was around 200,” she says.

At the same time, she adds that it is unknown whether there were actually any prisoners on board the crashed aircraft who were intended for exchange.

Russia claimed that there were 65 military personnel aboard and that the plane was allegedly shot down by Ukraine. Katrychenko compared Russia's reaction after this disaster to its statements following the shelling of the Olenivka colony. In both cases, the Russians asserted that Ukraine supposedly carried out the attack using foreign weapons received shortly before from their partners.

What is known about the Il-76 crash?

On the morning of January 24, Russian media reported that an Il-76 aircraft crashed in the Belgorod region. The Russian Ministry of Defense stated that there were allegedly 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war on board, being transported for exchange, as well as 6 crew members and 3 accompanying personnel.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian media, citing sources, claimed that the Il-76 was transporting missiles for the S-300 systems, which the Russians were using to bombard the Kharkiv region.

The Ukrainian intelligence confirmed that on January 24, an exchange of prisoners was being prepared between Russia and Ukraine. They later reported that Russia did not inform about the transportation of Ukrainian prisoners to the exchange point by plane and that there is no reliable and comprehensive information about who was aboard the Russian Il-76.

Intelligence representative Andrey Yusov stated that only 5 bodies were delivered to the morgue in Belgorod after the plane crash. This corresponds to the number of crew members on board. He also mentioned that Russian military-political VIP representatives were supposed to be on board, but at the last moment, Russian special services prohibited them from boarding the aircraft.

On January 31, a large prisoner exchange took place, during which 207 Ukrainians returned to Ukraine. However, there were none among the released soldiers who were allegedly transported by Russia on the Il-76.