Ukraine confirms its POWs were on downed Russian plane
A senior official in Kiev has confirmed that Ukrainian prisoners of war were among those killed when a Russian Il-76 military transport plane was downed in the border Belgorod Region in January 2024. The 65 service members were to be included in one of the routine prisoner exchanges between the two countries.
The acknowledgement was made by Deputy Interior Minister Leonid Timchenko, who in an interview with the Ukrainian outlet Censor.net on Thursday discussed in detail the process of handling and identifying the remains of Ukrainian soldiers, as well as their return by Russia.
'Let me explain by drawing an example: when we receive a package and see that there are body parts in it, we understand that we are talking about the remains of more than one body,' he said.
'Remember the situation with the downed IL-76, which had about 60 prisoners of war on board? Over 500 [body parts] were returned from that plane,' Timchenko noted, adding that the investigators' job in this case is to collect and identify DNA from each piece.
The crash occurred on January 24, 2024, near the village of Yablonovo in Russia's Belgorod Region, killing all 74 people on board. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the aircraft was transporting 65 Ukrainian POWs, meant for an imminent exchange, along with six crew members and three Russian guards. Russian President Vladimir Putin at the time said that he 'doesn't know' and 'does not understand' why Ukraine took down the plane, later suggesting that it was an accident.
Ukraine initially did not deny responsibility for the incident and also confirmed that an exchange was impending, but said it had no information about who was on the plane. It also argued that the attack was legitimate since it was a military transport plane. Ukrainian media also claimed at the time that the Il-76 was transporting air defense missiles.
Months later, Ukrainian officials began receiving human remains of those who died in the crash and concluded that their DNA profiles mostly matched those of the captives' relatives.
In February 2024, a New York Times report cited US officials as saying that the plane was likely shot down by a Patriot missile system operated by Ukrainian forces, in line with the Russian Defense Ministry's statement that it had detected two Ukrainian missile launches shortly before the crash.
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