Russia ‘used POWs as human shields’ on military plane that was shot down, claims Ukraine
Ukraine has accused Russia of using prisoners of war as “human shields” on a military plane which was shot down on Wednesday.
It told a meeting of the United Nations Security Council that missiles were being transported on the Ilyushin Il-76 which crashed in the Belgorod border region.
Russia has claimed 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war were on board the aircraft and that Kyiv fired two Western-supplied missiles at it in a “terrorist act”.
Khrystyna Hayovyshyn, Ukraine’s deputy ambassador to the UN, told the meeting that if the POWs were on board it was the first case of “Russia using a human shield in the air to cover the transportation of missiles”.
“Ukraine was not informed about the number of vehicles, roads and means of transportation of the captives,” she added.
“This alone may constitute intentional actions by Russia to endanger the lives and safety of the prisoners.”
Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia’s deputy ambassador to the UN, told the Security Council that Ukraine made a “premeditated” decision to shoot the aircraft down with the aim of furthering “Western geopolitical interests”.
“All of the information that we have today shows that we are dealing with a premeditated, thought-through crime,” he said.
The United States said Russia was ultimately responsible for the incident because it chose to invade Ukraine in February 2022.
“Russia has repeatedly attempted to shift responsibility for the tragedies of this senseless war of choice, as though it is the victim and not the aggressor,” said Robert Wood, its deputy envoy to the UN. ‘’
Ukraine has called for an international investigation into the incident.
Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said on Thursday morning that it “was definitely needed”.
Ukraine’s HUR military intelligence agency and parliamentary human rights commissioner said on Thursday that photo and video evidence from the crash site contradicted Russia’s claims that 65 POWs and nine Russians were on board.
Andriy Yusov, spokesman for the HUR, alleged that only five bodies were found at the site and that several high-ranking “VIP officials” had been due to board the plane before being warned “at the last moment” by the FSB.
Lt Gen Mykola Oleshchuk, the head of Ukraine’s air force, said on Thursday that Russia had produced a “fake stream of information” about the incident to “discredit Ukraine in the eyes of the international community”.
