A military transport plane Ilyushin-76 crashed in the Belgorod Region on Wednesday morning, the Russian Defense Ministry said, TASS reports.
The plane was carrying 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war, six crew and three escorts.
"On January 24 this year an Ilyushin-76 transport plane crashed in the Belgorod Region during a scheduled flight at about 11 a.m. Moscow time (8 a.m. GMT). There were 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war who were being moved to the Belgorod Region for an exchange, and three escorts on board," the Defense Ministry said.
The Aerospace Force has dispatched a panel of inquiry to probe into the incident.
Earlier, the governor of the Belgorod Region, said on his Telegram channel the incident occurred in the Korocha district. He did not elaborate. A team of investigators and Emergency Ministry personnel are working at the site of the crash.
An Il-76 military plane crashed five to six kilometers away from the village of Yablonovo in the Korocha District of Russia’s borderline Belgorod Region, a local cleric told TASS.
"No damage was done to the village, as it [the plane] crashed in a field outside of the village," Rev. Georgy, rector of the Dimitri Solunsky church in Yablonovo said, adding that the church building had not been affected either.
Nor the local school was damaged, school officials told TASS.
Andrei Kartapolov, a member of Russia's State Duma and a retired general, said a military transport plane that crashed in southern Russia on Wednesday (January 24) was shot down by three missiles of types that the West has supplied to Ukraine, Reuters reports.
Kartapolov did not state the source of his information. He said investigations would reveal whether the missiles were Patriots or IRIS-Ts.
