France's Foreign Ministry says Russia's repeated lies mean France cannot determine whether France's claims about Ukraine shooting down a military transport plane are correct.
“Russia is used to us lying on these issues,” Foreign Ministry deputy spokesman Christophe Lemoine said.
His comments are the latest in a series of statements about the crash, but so far there is no evidence to suggest a definitive understanding of what happened or who was on board.
We have collected here all important statements from Russian and Ukrainian authorities.
Ministry of Defense of Russia
According to the ministry, a large military Ilyushin Il-76 transport plane was shot down by the Kiev regime as it was carrying 74 people (65 of them Ukrainian prisoners) over Belgorod for a prisoner exchange at the Korotilovka border crossing. It is said that
Without providing evidence, the ministry claimed that Russian radar had detected two Ukrainian missiles fired from Ukraine's Kharkov region.
Ukrainian military intelligence
Ukraine's intelligence service (GUR) did not say whether Ukraine shot down the plane or who was on board.
The newspaper said Russia's accusations could be a “planned move to destabilize the situation in Ukraine and weaken international support for our country.”
The GUR confirmed yesterday that the exchange was scheduled to take place, but said it had not been informed how Russia would get the prisoners to the handover point.
Spokesman Andriy Yusov said there was not enough evidence to believe that the Ilyushin Il-76 was carrying 65 captured Ukrainian soldiers.
“Unfortunately, various scenarios can be envisaged, including provocations and the use of Ukrainian prisoners of war as human shields to transport ammunition and weapons for the S-300 system,” he told Radio Svoboda. .
He added that Russian air defense systems were active in the Belgorod region yesterday and shot down a Ukrainian drone.
ukrainian media
Ukraineska Pravda newspaper, citing anonymous sources in the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, claimed that the plane was carrying missiles for the S-300 defense system.
Ombudsman of Ukraine
“We cannot say for sure that there were actually prisoners of war. There was no indication that there were so many people on the plane,” Dmytro Rubinets said.
He called for an international investigation, but lamented that Russia “will make loud statements but won't let anyone in. It won't hand over any material for analysis, it will just blame Ukraine.”
Russian state news agency
According to TASS, debris believed to be a missile was found at the crash site.
The black boxes, both the flight parameters recorder and the voice recorder, were recovered in good condition, RIA Novosti reported.
TV journalist Margarita Simonyan, considered a senior propagandist by the Institute for the Study of War, announced what she said was a list of the names of 65 Ukrainian prisoners on board the plane, but the ISW report said the list was At least one person has already been arrested. It was swapped on January 3rd.
Russian politician
Chairman of the State Duma Defense Committee Andrei Kartapolov said three missiles of American or German origin were fired from Ukraine, despite being warned 15 minutes before the GUR entered the area.
He also provided no evidence for this claim or that the flight was not escorted by Russian fighter jets because it had been agreed upon in advance with Ukraine.
It added that a second Il-76 transport plane carrying about 80 Ukrainian soldiers headed for the exchange turned back.
Ukraine's Andriy Yusov denied that the GUR had received any written or verbal requests from Russia to secure its airspace.
Volodymyr Zelensky
Last night, the president said there needed to be more clarity, especially about who was participating.
“It is clear that the Russians are playing with the lives of Ukrainian prisoners of war, the feelings of their loved ones and the feelings of our society,” he said.