In Ukraine, the status of 65 soldiers who were allegedly killed in the IL-76 by the Russians has not changed - they are considered prisoners of war. This was reported by a representative of the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine Andriy Yusov on the Espresso TV channel, UNN reports .
"Regarding the 'list of 65': we can confirm that these are indeed the names of Ukrainian defenders who were and are currently formally in Russian captivity, we have not changed anything in this status. Yes, they were submitted for an exchange that was canceled when the Russian plane went down. The same plane, which is a military aircraft. No one warned anyone that there were allegedly Ukrainian prisoners on board. The silence regime did not apply then, unlike other exchanges, when everything was organized correctly, and we were informed that the plane was transporting Ukrainian prisoners," Yusov noted.
According to him, if it turns out that, for example, there were weapons and missiles for the S-300 on board and this was transported together with Ukrainian prisoners, this will be another war crime of the Russian Federation.
"The Ukrainian side submits requests to the Russian Federation to return the bodies of servicemen. So far, there has been no response, but such requests will continue to be submitted. Of course, Ukraine is conducting its own investigation. The SBU has opened proceedings, and the investigation is ongoing. At the same time, it was Ukraine that initiated an independent international investigation. But, strangely enough, the aggressor state has once again rejected this proposal," he added.
Addendum
Recently, NSDC Secretary Oleksiy Danilov statedthat there were no Ukrainian prisoners of war on the IL-76 plane that crashed near Belgorod, Russia. However, Ukraine does not have sufficient information on whether the prisoners who were supposed to be exchanged that day are still alive.
Russia claimsthat it has allegedly identified the remains of 74 people killed in the crash of an Il-76 aircraft near Belgorod using genetic expertise. According to the Russian statement, the dead include 6 Russian crew members, 3 Russian military police officers and 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war.