Was Russian Il-76 Plane Carrying Ukrainian POWs Before Crash? What We Know

Conflicting details have emerged in the aftermath of a Russian military plane crash in the Belgorod region bordering Ukraine on Wednesday.

Russia’s ministry of defense said 65 captured Ukrainian military personnel were on the Il-76 plane heading to the Belgorod region for a prisoner exchange when it crashed near the village of Yablonovo, according to state-run news agency RIA Novosti.

“At about 11.00 Moscow time, an Il-76 plane crashed during a scheduled flight in the Belgorod region. On board there were 65 captured military personnel of the Ukrainian armed forces…six members of the plane’s crew and three accompanying persons,” Russia’s defense ministry was quoted as saying by the country’s state-run news agency RIA Novosti.

Russian Telegram channels Shot and Mash claimed that the exchange was scheduled to take place on Wednesday.

Images from the site of the crash circulating online show the plane was completely destroyed, with debris strewn around a field. Another video of the moment of the crash showed a huge fireball and black plumes of smoke rising into the sky from a distance.

The Ukrainska Pravda (UP) news outlet initially said the crash was “the work of the Ukrainian Armed Forces,” citing a source, but later said that “at the same time, another UP source did not confirm this information.”

The publication quoted unnamed sources in Ukraine’s Armed Forces as saying that the plane was transporting missiles for Russia’s S-300 air defense systems, and made no mention of prisoners of war.

Ukraine’s defense ministry said it couldn’t confirm whether the aircraft was shot down by the Ukrainian Defense Forces because “the information is still being clarified.”

Newsweek has contacted Ukraine’s foreign ministry and Russia’s defense ministry for comment by email. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday that the Kremlin will now “deal with” the situation, without elaborating.

Andrei Kartapolov, the chairman of Russia’s parliamentary defense committee, claimed there was a second plane transporting 80 Ukrainian prisoners, but that it changed course after the crash.

“There can now be no talk of any other [prisoner] exchanges,” Kartapolov was quoted by Russian state media as saying. He alleged that the Il-76 plane was shot down by three Patriot missiles.

“The leadership of Ukraine was well aware of the impending exchange, they were informed about how the prisoners would be delivered, but the Il-76 plane was shot down by three missiles from an anti-aircraft missile system, either Patriot or IRIS T, made in Germany, specialists will sort it out,” he told Russia’s State Duma.

Ukrainian journalist Illia Ponomarenko said on X, formerly Twitter, that so far, he finds it “doubtful” that the downed Russian aircraft was transporting 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war (POW) for a prisoner swap.

“It’s also not highly probable that Ukraine’s military had no idea that a certain Il-76 was carrying POW. Especially now that Russians even claim there were suddenly other POW aircraft, too,” he wrote.

“You know, prisoner swaps between Ukraine and Russia are complex and highly sensitive operations in which every breath is reconciled between the two sides for weeks, if not months,” Ponomarenko continued.

“I find it doubtful that in such a major swap involving more than one aircraft full of Ukrainian POWs, the Ukrainian military had no idea about the massive air transfer to Belgorod,” he added. “Possible, but not likely.”

Ukraine and Russia last announced a prisoner swap on January 3—their first in nearly five months—which involved more than 200 prisoners of war being freed by each side after what was describe as a complex negotiation that involved mediation by the United Arab Emirates.

Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s HUR Military Intelligence agency, described it as a “very difficult prisoner swap.”

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