Investigators have found the flight recorders of a Russian military transport plane that crashed in a border region near Ukraine, Russian media reported Thursday, a day after Moscow accused Kyiv of shooting down the aircraft, which it said was carrying 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war.
The Il-76 crashed in a huge ball of flame in a rural area of Russia on Wednesday, and authorities said all 74 people on board were killed. Ukraine’s president has demanded an international investigation.
Russian officials accused Kyiv of shooting down the plane with two missiles and said Ukrainian prisoners of war were on board and headed for an exchange. They offered no evidence for their claim.
The Associated Press could not independently confirm who was aboard or how the plane was downed.
Ukrainian authorities confirmed a prisoner exchange was due to happen Wednesday, and that it was called off, but said they had no information about who was on the plane.
Kyiv officials gave no direct response to the Russian accusation, though they noted that Russian aircraft were legitimate targets and that Moscow had requested no safe passage in the context of the prisoner swap.
The discovery of the plane’s flight recorders was reported Thursday by the state-owned RIA Novosti news agency, citing emergency services.
However, there is slim hope that the circumstances of the crash and the Russian allegations will be clarified. The war has often featured claims and counterclaims, used as ammunition in the bid to sway opinion at home and abroad.
As the conflict approaches the two-year mark, the 1,500-kilometer (930-mile) front line has been largely static amid a second winter of fighting. With both sides seeking to replenish their weapons stockpiles, the war recently has focused on long-range strikes.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Thursday repeated the allegation that Ukraine had downed the plane, describing it as “a totally monstrous act.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy didn’t directly address Moscow’s allegation but said Ukraine would push for an international investigation.
“It is necessary to establish all the facts, as much as possible, considering that the plane crash occurred on Russian territory — beyond our control,” he said in his nightly video address late Wednesday.
“It’s obvious Russians are playing with lives of Ukrainian POWs, with the feelings of their relatives and the emotions of our society,” Zelenskyy said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council, which was expected to take place on Thursday afternoon in New York.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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