A Russian plane transporting captured Ukrainian soldiers crashed near a residential area on Wednesday, footage shows.
The military plane crashed in the Belgorod region of western Russia, Russian officials said. according to Go to ABC News.
Belgorod/Bilgorod PR❗
Big Babovna ✈️💥🔥🔥🔥💨
According to Russian media, an Il-76 military plane crashed in the Belgorod region. The moment of the plane crash in BNR was caught on camera. According to Russian media, there were 63 people on board the Il-76. Their fate… pic.twitter.com/57ZCU43S0E— LX (@LXSummer1) January 24, 2024
Belgorod Governor said all passengers on the flight were killed in the accident. according to To CNBC. Russia claimed Ukraine was responsible for the incident, and many Russian lawmakers accused Ukraine of shooting down the plane with the type of missiles supplied to Ukraine by Western countries.
ABC News reported that the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that the Ukrainian soldiers on board were on their way to a planned prisoner exchange in the Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine.
Six crew members and three “companions” were also on board flight Il-76, the Defense Ministry said, according to the report. The Ilyushin Il-76 is a Soviet-era military transport aircraft designed to carry heavy equipment, weapons, and cargo. (Related: U.S. voters see Ukraine-Russia war as a stalemate for the first time, survey finds)
The White House is pressuring Congress to allocate more money for foreign aid to Ukraine as lawmakers battle over aid to the country, which is at war with Russia.
More than $1 billion in weapons provided to Ukraine under the Biden administration was improperly tracked by U.S. defense and foreign affairs officials, an inspector general general report found earlier this year. .
