MOSCOW (Reuters): Russian President Vladimir Putin said a Russian military plane that crashed near the border with Ukraine on Wednesday was shot down by Ukrainian air defenses, whether on purpose or by mistake.
Moscow accuses Kyiv of downing the Ilyushin Il-76 plane in Russia’s Belgorod region and killing 74 people on board, including 65 captured Ukrainian soldiers en route to be swapped for Russian PoWs. It has not presented evidence.
Ukraine has neither confirmed nor denied that it shot down the plane and has challenged Moscow’s account of who was on board and what happened.
“I don’t know if they did it on purpose or by mistake, but it is obvious that they did it,” Putin said in televised comments, his first on the crash.
“In any case, what happened is a crime. Either through negligence or on purpose, but in any case it is a crime.”
Ukraine disputes Russia’s assertion that it was warned in advance that a plane carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war would be flying over Russia’s southwestern Belgorod region at that time.
It has also said there were discrepancies in a list published by Russian media of the 65 Ukrainians alleged to have been on the aircraft.
Putin said the plane could not have been brought down by Russian “friendly fire” because Russia’s air defense systems have safeguards to prevent them attacking their own planes.
“There are ‘friend or foe’ systems there, and no matter how much the operator presses the button, our air defense systems would not work,” he said.
Putin said the missiles fired were mostly likely American or French, but this would be established with certainty in two to three days.
An adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Putin’s comments amounted to a “classic disinformation” campaign.
“First of all, look at it. We are fighting but (for Putin) Ukraine is doing something wrong in terms of the rules and customs of war,” Mykhailo Podolyak told Ukrainian television.
“And secondly, there is something much more important for the Russians. They want to take away our right to receive missiles from our partners for our air defense systems.”
Russia’s Investigative Committee earlier reported that Ukrainian identity documents and tattooed body parts had been recovered from the site of the crash.
