WASHINGTON - The UN Security Council has agreed to meet on Jan 25 to discuss the crash of a Russian plane that Moscow says was carrying captured Ukrainian soldiers to a prisoner exchange.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia has called for an emergency United Nations Security Council session to discuss the crash.
Russia has accused Ukraine of deliberately shooting down the military transport plane carrying 65 captured Ukrainian soldiers to the prisoner exchange in what it called a barbaric act of terrorism that had killed a total of 74 people.
The UN Security Council has agreed to meet on Jan 25 at 5pm (6am Singapore time on Jan 26).
Mr Lavrov called the downing of the aircraft on Jan 24 a “criminal” act by Ukraine and said Russia sought the session so the Ukrainians could explain how the plane went down.
“The Ukrainian prisoners of war were transported to the Belgorod region in order to conduct yet another swop that was agreed between Moscow and Kyiv,” he said.
“Instead of this, the Ukrainian side launched an air defence missile from the Kharkov region. It targeted the airplane and was a fatal strike.”
Ukraine did not directly confirm it had shot down the plane, nor that Ukrainian prisoners were on board.
But after a long pause, the Ukrainian military said it would continue to destroy Russian military transport aircraft it believed were carrying missiles with which to strike Ukraine.
Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence agency said Ukraine had not been asked to ensure airspace security around Belgorod unlike previous swaps and had not been informed about what means of transport would be used and which routes.
“On this basis, we may be talking about planned and deliberate actions by Russia to destabilise the situation in Ukraine and weaken international support for our state,” GUR said in a statement on Telegram.
If the details are confirmed, it would be the deadliest incident of its kind inside Russia’s internationally recognised borders during the almost two-year-old war.
Ukraine’s intelligence agency confirmed a prisoner swap with Russia had been planned for Wednesday and said the captured Russian servicemen had been delivered to the agreed exchange point on time and were safe.
Video footage posted on Telegram by Baza, a channel linked to Russian security services, and verified by Reuters, showed a large aircraft falling to the ground near the village of Yablonovo in Belgorod region and exploding in a vast fireball.
Reuters could not immediately verify details of who was on board the downed plane, but Moscow and Kyiv have regularly swapped prisoners since Russia began what it calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine in February 2022.
Russian state media published a list of names of the 65 captured Ukrainian soldiers it said were on board, along with their dates of birth. The list could not be verified by Reuters.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Jan 24 called for full clarity on the circumstances of the crash and accused Moscow of “playing with the lives of Ukrainian prisoners of war”.
“It is clear that the Russians are playing with the lives of Ukrainian prisoners, the feelings of their loved ones and the emotions of our society,” he said in his nightly video broadcast. REUTERS
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2024-01-24 23:27:13Z
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