A Russian military cargo plane crashed in Russia’s Belgorod region near the border with Ukraine on Wednesday, according to the Russian Defense Ministry, The New York Times reported.
According to the report, the plane, an IL-76, was carrying 65 captured Ukrainian soldiers headed for a prisoner exchange. All 74 people on board died, the Defense Ministry said. The news was reported by numerous outlets, but the ministry’s claims were not independently verified.
Ukraine, however, said that the plane that crashed in Belgorod was carrying missiles for the S-300 air defense system, according to the official Ukrainian information service, CNN reported.
A video posted on Telegram was said to show a plane crashing near Yablonovo, a town in Russia’s Korochanksy district. Vyacheslav Gladkov, the Belgorod governor, said a Russian investigative team and emergency services personnel are at the scene of the crash, according to CNN.
Russia has accused Ukraine of downing the airplane. The Ukrainian officials did not directly respond to Moscow’s accusations, but the military’s general staff headquarters issued a statement saying that Ukraine had the right to target Russian military transport planes in the border region, according to The New York Times. It is not clear whether the plane was shot down or if a mechanical failure caused the crash.
The White House said it is aware of claims about the plane crash, but U.S. officials said they were not in a position to confirm any of the statements. The administration is “obviously doing the best we can to try to get more clarity and more information on it,” National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said, per CNN.
Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said it is investigating the information about prisoners of war, according to the Kyiv Independent. “We emphasize that the enemy is actively carrying out special information operations directed against Ukraine, which are aimed at destabilizing Ukrainian society,” the headquarters said on its Telegram channel, per the Kyiv Independent.