A roar, a plane hurtling towards the earth – and then a ball of fire. In a pixelated cell phone video, a Russian woman captured the last seconds of the Ilyushin Il-76, which fell from the sky near the western Russian city of Belgorod at around 10 a.m. (local time) on Wednesday. The cargo plane crashed and the impact was violent. Anyone who has seen the video knows straight away: no one survived here.
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Shot down, yes – but by who and why?
But that’s where the clarity of this case ends – even if authorities and news agencies in Russia officially spoke of the Il-76 being shot down by the Ukrainian armed forces shortly after the accident. Belgorod is not far from the Ukrainian border and has repeatedly been the target of Ukrainian attacks in the past. Andrei Kartapolov, chairman of the Defense Committee of the Russian State Duma, told Interfax: “The plane was shot down by three missiles from an anti-aircraft missile system, either Patriot or IRIS T.” The Defense Ministry added that the attack came from near the village of Lypzi in Kharkiv Oblast. From there to Belgorod it is around 60 kilometers as the crow flies.
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Conflicting information
The Ukrainian government has not yet commented on this. However, the armed forces themselves are said to have already confirmed the shooting, as the pro-Ukrainian blogger Igor Sushko on X writes. Accordingly, the Il-76 was loaded with S300 rockets and was fired upon by the Ukrainians shortly after takeoff from Belgorod. Sushko gave RA-78830 as the (possible) registration number of the Il-76 that crashed. This aircraft was located according to records of the Tracking-App Flightradar24 on Wednesday morning at the time in question over the Mediterranean between Cyprus and Syria. According to Sushko, the Ukrainian military has since withdrawn the report of the shooting. It is therefore also possible that the Russian air defense itself was responsible for the loss of the Ilyushin, the blogger continued.
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Russia: prisoners on board
The Russian version of the story, however, is completely different. Accordingly, there are said to have been primarily Ukrainian prisoners of war on board the Il-76 who were flown to Belgorod for a prisoner exchange. A total of 65 prisoners of war as well as three Russian escorts and six crew members died in the Ilyushin that was shot down. There is already one circulating on X List of names of prisoners intended for exchange. However, it cannot be confirmed whether it is real. The government in Kiev has now confirmed that a prisoner exchange was planned for today – and that it is now not taking place.
Patrick Zwerger
The Ilyushin Il-76 is a heavy transport aircraft from the 1970s – and an important model for Russia’s air force.
Launched on landing approach?
In any case, the Russian government sees the shooting down of the Il-76 as a “barbaric act” on the part of Ukraine. “The leadership of Ukraine was aware of the impending exchange and was informed about how the prisoners would be extradited,” said Andrei Kartapolov in an interview with Interfax. According to him, the Il-76 had taken off from the Moscow region in the morning and was approaching Belgorod. According to Kartapalow, a second Il-76 with around 80 more prisoners of war on board was able to turn back in time.