An Il-76 military plane crashed in the Belgorod region. Russia claims there were Ukrainian PoWs on board

On the morning of January 24, Belgorod Region Governor Gladkov said that a drone had been shot down in the region and a missile alert was announced.

At 10:48 a.m., he said that an “incident” had occurred in the Korocha district and that an investigation team and emergency officials were working at the scene.

According to the Russian Telegram channels 112 and Mash, which are associated with Russian security forces, an Il-76 military plane crashed in the region. At the same time, Krymskiy Veter reports that it was a Tu-154.

It should be noted that the Il-76 is a Soviet heavy military transport aircraft designed to transport and land personnel, equipment, and cargo for various purposes. According to the 112 Telegram channel, there were 63 people on board the plane, all of whom died.

Ukrainska Pravda, citing sources in the Defense Forces, writes that the downing of the Russian Il-76 was the work of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The General Staff also told the publication that the plane was transporting missiles to the S-300 systems used by the Russians to fire on the Kharkiv region. The Mash Telegram channel writes that the Ukrainian Armed Forces shot down a plane with a Patriot air defense system in the sky over the Belgorod region.

At the same time, according to Suspilne, the Ministry of Defense cannot confirm that the plane was shot down by the Ukrainian Defense Forces, as they are “still looking into the matter”.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin media, citing the Russian Defense Ministry, reported that the IL-76 allegedly carried 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war for exchange, as well as six crew members and three escorts.

We have contacted the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces to clarify these statements.

Ukrainian blogger Ihor Lachenkov posted on social media an interception of a conversation between Russian pilots.

“Regarding the downed IL-76MD near Belgorod. It was friendly/enemy fire. The other plane says it was transmitting information about a missile to Belgorod,” he said in his post.

Russian presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that the situation with the plane had already been reported to Putin, but he could not comment on it himself: “This is quite new, fresh information, and we will deal with it now.” Meanwhile, the head of the State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, has already said that he will prepare an appeal to the United States and Germany regarding the crash of the Il-76.