According to reports, video footage shows a Russian jet crashing in a residential neighborhood in late January. The plane was purportedly carrying Ukrainian troops who had been captured.
Russian authorities confirmed to media outlets that the military aircraft went down in the Belgorod area in western Russia.
According to a report, the governor of Belgorod confirmed that the accident killed everybody on board. Russia held Ukraine responsible for the event. Several Russian legislators said that Ukraine shot down the plane using missiles that Ukraine has received from Western countries.
The Ukrainian troops on board were en route to the Belgorod area, which borders Ukraine, for a scheduled prisoner exchange, according to a statement from the Russian Ministry of Defense.
The Ministry of Defense declared that the Il-76 aircraft carried six crew members and three others. A transport aircraft, the Ilyushin Il-76, can transport large equipment, weaponry, and freight.
Russian defense officials said that Ukrainian forces shot down the jet from the Kharkiv area in eastern Ukraine, deploying an anti-aircraft missile system that had been fired from across the border.
Despite acknowledging responsibility for shooting down the jet, Ukrainian military intelligence claimed it had not been notified of the necessity to secure the airspace above Belgorod at a specified time, as had occurred during other prisoner exchanges.
Military sources told a Ukrainian news outlet that the aircraft was transporting weapons rather than captives.
Ukraine has issued a press release concerning the news of the downing of an Il-76 aircraft in Russia. The statement emphasizes that the Ukrainian military will persist in destroying delivery systems and controlling airspace to eradicate the terrorist threat, particularly along the Belgorod-Kharkiv front.
Amid congressional gridlock on whether or not to support Ukraine in its continuing conflict with Russia, the White House has pushed for more foreign assistance funding for the country.
An inspector general study earlier this year revealed that U.S. military and diplomatic personnel wrongly monitored almost $1 billion worth of weaponry transferred to Ukraine during the Biden administration.
