No Ukrainian prisoners aboard russian Il-76 that recently crashed in Belgorod Oblast – NSDC Head Danilov

Oleksii Danilov, the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC), said that there were no Ukrainian prisoners of war on board during the crash of the russian Il-76 plane in the Belgorod Oblast, russia. However, Ukraine does not have enough information on whether the prisoners who were to be exchanged that day are still alive.

The NSDC Secretary said this in an interview for Babel.

"Were our prisoners there, I can tell you for sure - no. I say this based on the experience we had after Tehran and on the basis of what happened next. If it really happened, then the amount of biological material, that, which is called, let's say, the dead, there would be a significant number," Danilov said.

In his opinion, the russians would definitely take advantage of this situation and film it for a television picture.

"There was no such thing; they had this whole story prepared. And so let's wait, we just have to wait. If this were to happen, then, believe me, Lavrov would have rehearsed like this at the UN, and they would have shown all this. They have nothing to show because if it happened in reality, it would be a completely different picture," said Danilov and added that in today's world, it is impossible to hide anything.

As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, on the morning of January 24, social networks and mass media published information about the crash of a russian Il-76 military transport plane in the Belgorod Oblast.

Russian officials and propagandists began to claim that 65 captured Ukrainian servicemen were allegedly on board the plane, who were being transported to the Belgorod region for exchange.

Later that day, the Defense Intelligence of the Defense Ministry of Ukraine stated that Ukraine does not have reliable and comprehensive information about who exactly was on board the russian IL-76 aircraft and how many.

In addition, on January 24, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukraine would insist on an international investigation into the circumstances of the downing of the russian IL-76 plane.

At the same time, the U.S. State Department considers the Kremlin's statements regarding the downing of the russian IL-76 with Ukrainian prisoners of war on board to be untrustworthy.