KIEV, Ukraine: Ukraine has said that it “does not exclude” the possibility there were Ukrainian prisoners on board the Russian military plane that came down in Belgorod few days back.
A representative of Ukrainian defence intelligence, Andriy Yusov told the BBC that he “does not exclude” the possibility there were Ukrainian prisoners on board the Russian military plane. However, he stressed that Russia had provided no proof to support its claims.
“There is no clear information about prisoners of war. There are only statements by Russia, of a political and propagandist nature,” he added. “Who or what was on board needs to be clarified.”
Mr Yusov is the first Ukrainian official interviewed by the BBC since the incident on Wednesday. He accused Moscow of “hiding” information, with limited images from the plane crash site – including of any dead.
Russia had said 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war died when the IL-76 plane was shot down by a Ukrainian missile on Wednesday.
Its investigative committee released a short video on Thursday evening, showing blood on the snow, airplane wreckage and a large blackened area of ground.
There were some human body parts – but the footage and what it revealed is very limited.
Asked whether it was possible Ukraine had shot down the military plane, Yusov said: “We do not confirm such information.”
He told media both sides were using drones that day over Belgorod: “There were Ukrainian reconnaissance drones and Russia was launching attack drones.”
“Russian air defence was working against them. Belgorod is also potentially within the range of Ukrainian air defence systems.”
When pressed, the intelligence officer repeated there was “no confirmed information” that Ukraine had fired at the plane.
Yusov said Ukraine had launched a criminal case on the incident that would look into all the possibilities also stressing the need for an international investigation, with full access to the crash site in Russia and any fragments of plane or any missile – “in order to rule out all possibilities”.
The Ukrainian intelligence officer claimed that the crashed specific Il-76 aircraft had been used previously to deliver ammunition and “missiles for S-300 and S-400 systems” to the Belgorod region.
