On Wednesday, Russia reported that an IL-76 military transport plane, carrying 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war, crashed in the western Belgorod region, adjacent to Ukraine.
The defense ministry stated, “On board were 65 captured Ukrainian army servicemen being transported to the Belgorod region for exchange, six crew members, and three escorts,” as quoted by the RIA-Novosti news agency.
The local governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, mentioned an unspecified “incident” in the Korochansky district, northeast of Belgorod city, and announced plans to inspect the site.
The Belgorod region, bordering Ukraine, has faced frequent attacks from Ukraine in recent months, including a December missile strike that resulted in the death of 25 people.
The IL-76 is a military transport aircraft designed for troop transport, cargo, and carrying military equipment and weapons. With a normal crew of five people, it has the capacity to carry up to 90 passengers.
In response to a reporter’s inquiry, the Kremlin stated that it was investigating the situation.
Meanwhile, Russia handed down lengthy sentences, including life imprisonment, to over 200 Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs), marking almost two years into the Kremlin’s offensive. The prisoners, believed to number in the thousands, were captured during the siege of the port city of Mariupol in 2022.
The trials conducted by Moscow have been criticized by Kyiv and international rights groups as illegal. Alexander Bastrykin, the head of Russia’s Investigative Committee, revealed in an interview with the state news outlet RIA Novosti that more than 200 Ukrainian military personnel were sentenced for alleged crimes, including the murder of civilians and mistreatment of POWs.
Bastrykin stated that Moscow would persist in its efforts to prosecute Ukrainian military personnel, including high-level officials. The whereabouts of the sentenced soldiers were not explicitly mentioned, and it remains unclear whether the trials took place in Russia or in the occupied territories of Ukraine.
The Investigative Committee source, as quoted by the state-run outlet RT, mentioned that 242 soldiers were handed sentences in occupied Ukraine. It is noteworthy that many Ukrainian POWs have been held in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine, while some have been taken to Russia.
On January 3, Russia and Ukraine publicly announced the exchange of hundreds of captive soldiers, marking their first such exchange in months. The situation underscores the ongoing tensions between the two nations and the challenges surrounding the treatment of prisoners of war.
