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“There is no strong condemnation here from the West, of this horrific terrorist act, the destruction of the airplane that was carrying, first of all our pilots, escorts, but also killed a very large number of Ukrainian prisoners of war,” Peskov said. “What happened requires proper assessment by the international community.”
But more than 48 hours after the plane fell from the sky and left a large swath of charred earth, Russia has provided scant evidence of its claims. Ukrainian officials said that despite the Kremlin’s rhetoric, Moscow is blocking an international investigation.
Russia has said that the Ilyushin Il-76 transport plane, which crashed Wednesday in the western Belgorod region near the border with Ukraine, was carrying 65 Ukrainian POWs who were set to be exchanged that day.
Ukraine has not directly confirmed that it shot down the plane, but it has not denied involvement and has hinted that it was responsible, calling the aircraft a military target that was regularly used to ferry missiles to be launched at Ukrainian cities.
Officials in Kyiv have insisted they do not know whether POWs were on the plane. Instead, they have called for Russia to provide more information to Kyiv and to international organizations and investigators.
But it is unclear how, when or if Moscow will cooperate. Russia has resisted international investigations in the past, including into the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny with a banned nerve agent and the 2014 downing of a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet over eastern Ukraine in which all 298 people aboard were killed. In that case, investigators determined that a Russian antiaircraft weapon was used, and two former Russian security agents and a third defendant were convicted in absentia of murder by a Dutch court.
Russia’s refusal to allow an international inquiry or provide access to physical evidence could prevent a definitive answer as to who or what was on the Il-76 that went down Wednesday.
Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian parliamentary commissioner for human rights, said on Ukrainian radio Friday that Kyiv has not received an official list of prisoners who allegedly died on board the plane.
Margarita Simonyan, the head of the Russian state propaganda channel RT, published a list of names and birth dates that she said documented the Ukrainian POWs on board, but news outlets quickly reported that some of those named by Simonyan appeared to be prisoners released in previous swaps.
The wife of one of the prisoners listed, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for security reasons, said she did not believe her husband died in the crash. Simonyan’s list was the first time she heard any news of her husband since he was taken prisoner more than a year ago.
“I don’t believe they were there,” the woman said. “I hope for the best.”
In a statement Thursday, the International Committee of the Red Cross said that it had not received a list of the prisoners who were set to be exchanged.
“We understand the stress and worry that this kind of news can bring to families that have been separated from their loved ones for months,” it said. “We will continue doing our utmost to help clarify the fate of POWs separated from their families from both sides and other missing persons.”
Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for Ukraine’s military intelligence, called on Russia to allow an international commission to investigate the site of the crash and examine the black boxes recovered from the plane, but he added that Moscow has so far refused to do so. Ukraine has requested that the Red Cross and the United Nations be granted access.
It could take months to get answers. A July 2022 explosion at a camp for Ukrainian prisoners of war in occupied eastern Ukraine killed at least 51 detainees and prompted a months-long effort by Ukraine and international organizations to investigate what happened.
Russia accused Ukraine of striking the site with a U.S.-provided rocket, but a United Nations report — released more than a year after the explosion — eventually ruled that out. Ukraine’s government repeatedly criticized the Red Cross for not sending a delegation to investigate the scene of the strike.
Ukrainian officials maintain that they have not seen proof that dozens of people died aboard the aircraft. The few short video clips released from the scene have shown scattered debris but no visible body parts.
Siobhán O’Grady, Serhii Korolchuk and Kamila Hrabchuk in Kyiv and Natalia Abbakumova in Riga, Latvia, contributed to this report.
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