State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin announced an appeal from deputies in connection with the Il-76 crash in the Belgorod region.
According to him, the State Duma will prepare a statement addressed to the parliaments of the United States and Germany, “so that the deputies will finally see the light and understand who they are helping.” The Ukrainian Armed Forces “shot in the air” their soldiers, Volodin pointed out.
State Duma deputy Viktor Zavarzin, in a commentary for Moscow Speaks, called the crash of the military Il-76 a terrorist attack.
In turn, the head of the State Duma Defense Committee, Kartapolov, told SHOT that the Ukrainian side knew who was on board the crashed plane. In his opinion, the Ukrainian Armed Forces hit the Il-76 with a Patriot air defense missile or three German IRIS-T SLM missiles.
He also said that after the emergency, another Il-76 with Ukrainian prisoners of war deployed to the region.
Let us remind you that the Il-76 military transport plane crashed in the Korchansky district of the Belgorod region. On board at that moment, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense, there were 65 captured military personnel of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, who were transported to the region for exchange.
Let us recall that in October, the head of the DPR, Denis Pushilin, reported that about 500 Russian soldiers were being held captive in Ukraine. At the same time, the number of Ukrainian prisoners of war is estimated at 20–25 thousand.
Prisoner exchanges between Russia and Ukraine took place regularly throughout 2022, but they stopped in the second half of 2023. According to the Ukrainian side, a total of 48 exchanges have taken place since the beginning of the special operation.
Source: Rosbalt
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