Ministry says aircraft that went down in border region of Belgorod was carrying prisoners who were to be swapped
A Russian military transport plane has crashed in the border region of Belgorod, according to Russia’s defence ministry.
The ministry said the aircraft was carrying 65 Ukrainian PoWs who were to be swapped. The ministry added that onboard the Ilyushin Il-76 were also six crew and three other people.
The Belgorod regional governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said all 74 people onboard had died.
It’s a weird take for sure. I’m not endorsing killing of POWs, but this would be the dumbest way to kill a bunch of captives. If they wanted them dead, then literally doing nothing would work.
Now they are out political bargaining chips and a plane.