Ukraine has challenged Russian claims that a plane that crashed near their border contained 65 captured Ukrainian soldiers.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday that greater clarity was needed, particularly when it came to who was on board the Ilyushin Il-76 plane when it crashed in Russia's Belgorod region.
President Zelenskyy accused Russia of "playing with the lives of Ukrainian prisoners".
However, a senior Russian lawmaker said Ukrainian military intelligence had been given a 15-minute warning before the Russian military transport plane crashed.
A view shows the crash site of the Russian Ilyushin Il-76 military transport plane near the village of Yablonovo in the Belgorod region, Russia
Reuters
Russia's Investigative Committee said on Thursday the plane was struck by a Ukrainian-made surface-to-air missile.
Ukraine has denied that it was given a warning. It has neither confirmed nor denied that its forces downed the plane but has challenged details of Moscow's account and called for an international investigation.
Shortly before the crash, Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on his Telegram channel that a "missile alert" had been triggered in the region.
President Zelenskyy said: "It is necessary to establish all the facts, as much as possible, considering that the plane crash occurred on Russian territory, beyond our control."
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The crash site of the Russian Ilyushin Il-76 military transport plane near the village of Yablonovo in the Belgorod region, Russia
Reuters
Russia has sole access to the site of the crash, where TV pictures showed debris scattered over snowy fields. TASS said the plane's flight recorders had been recovered and would be flown to Moscow for examination.
Ukraine's human rights commissioner Dmytro Lubinets said he believed the incident was a planned Russian misinformation campaign.
He added that a list of Ukrainian PoW casualties, which was shared after the crash by Russian media, included soldiers already returned in a previous swap.
Lubinets told Ukrainian national television: "The Russians will make loud statements but will not allow anyone in. They will not hand over any materials for analysis and will simply blame Ukraine."
Traffic police officers stand guard on a road near the crash site of the Russian Ilyushin Il-76 military transport plane outside the village of Yablonovo in the Belgorod region, Russia
Reuters
Russia's defence ministry said an exchange had been due to take place at the Kolotilovka checkpoint on the border between Russia and Ukraine.
It said the plane that was shot down had been flying from the Chkalovsky airbase near Moscow to Belgorod, in which case it would have been in the final stage of its flight.
Ukrainian military intelligence confirmed a swap was planned for Wednesday and said Kyiv had met all the terms for it, but it was not informed by Russia about the means of transport for the prisoners of war, and their routes.
It said that unlike in previous exchanges, Ukraine had not been asked to guarantee the security of airspace over Belgorod at a specific time.
