BLURB: Russian lawmaker says Ukraine was told PoWs were on plane as Ukraine ombudsman calls for international investigation
MOSCOW/KYIV: A senior Russian lawmaker said Ukrainian military intelligence had been given a 15-minute warning before a Russian military transport plane carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war entered an area where it was shot down on Wednesday.
Moscow accuses Kyiv of downing the Ilyushin Il-76 plane in Russia's Belgorod region, killing all 74 people on board, including 65 captured Ukrainian soldiers en route to be swapped for Russian POWs. Ukraine has neither confirmed nor denied the assertion, but has demanded an international investigation.
"The Ukrainian side was officially warned, and 15 minutes before the plane entered the zone they were given complete information, which they received and the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Armed Forces confirmed receipt of," Andrei Kartapolov told fellow lawmakers, according to the ruling United Russia party.
"We all know very well what happened next," added Kartapolov, a former general with close links to the defence ministry who now heads Russia's parliamentary defence committee.
His assertion contradicted a statement by Ukrainian military intelligence that Russia had not informed it about the flight arrangements.
Ukrainian military intelligence spokesperson Andriy Yusov reiterated on Thursday, in comments to Radio Svoboda, that Kyiv had received neither a written nor verbal request from Russia to refrain from attacks in the airspace where the plane was downed.
Yusov added that two other Russian military transport planes, An-26 and An-72, had also been in the airspace at the time.
"Unfortunately, we can assume various scenarios, including provocation, as well as the use of Ukrainian prisoners as a human shield for transporting ammunition and weapons for S-300 systems (being used in the war)," he said.
Conflicting narratives from both sides are a daily feature of a war now nearing the end of its second year. But the stakes are especially high in relation to Wednesday's incident, the deadliest of its kind to take place on Russia's own internationally recognised territory.
Fragments of what appears to be a missile have been found at the site where the plane crashed in Russia's southwestern Belgorod region near the border with Ukraine, the TASS state news agency cited emergency services as saying on Thursday.
Moscow has cast the downing of the plane as a Ukrainian "terrorist act".
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday that greater clarity was needed about what happened, particularly when it came to who was on board, and he accused Russia of "playing with the lives of Ukrainian prisoners".
He called for an international investigation, an appeal echoed on Thursday by Ukraine's ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets.
"But I am convinced that... the Russians will make loud statements but will not allow anyone in. They will not hand over any materials for analysis and will simply blame Ukraine," Lubinets told national television.
Russia has sole access to the site of the crash, where TV pictures showed debris scattered over snowy fields. TASS said the plane's black boxes had been recovered and would be flown to Moscow for examination at a defence ministry laboratory.
The United Nations Security Council was due to convene at 22:00 GMT on Thursday in response to a Russian call for a meeting to establish "the reasons behind the Ukrainian criminal act". — Reuters
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