The day before, the representative of the Defense Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Andrii Yusov, reported that Ukraine has appealed and continues to appeal to the aggressor state of the russian federation to transfer the bodies of Ukrainian POWs who allegedly were killed during the crash of the Il-76, but the russian federation does not comply. Meanwhile, the spokesman of the president of russia, dmitry peskov, said that the aforementioned appeals from Ukraine had not been received.
He said this in a comment to the russian state propaganda agency RIA Novosti.
"The administration of the president of russia has not received any requests from Kyiv to transfer the bodies of POWs who were killed died during the Il-76 crash, peskov said to RIA Novosti," russian propaganda media say.
It will be recalled that on February 1, the representative of the Defense Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine Andrii Yusov announced on the air of a telethon that Ukraine appealed to the russian federation to transfer the bodies of, as russia itself claims, Ukrainian POWs who were killed as a result of the downfall of the Il-76, but the aggressor state does not agree to this.
"Regarding the information about the death, yes, Ukraine applied and continues to apply for the transfer of the bodies. So far, the russian side does not agree to this," Yusov said.
In addition, the representative of the Defense Intelligence reported that the last exchange of POWs on January 31 "is almost the end of the exchange that was supposed to take place on January 24, except, in fact, for this list of the so-called 65, whom the russian federation declared killed."
Yusov also reported that there were no people from the list of 65 in the mentioned exchange on January 31.
"We can confirm that the mentioned 65 surnames are the surnames of Ukrainian defenders who are in captivity, according to our data, the status has not changed as of yet, and which Ukraine submitted and is submitting for exchange," Yusov added.
He emphasized that Ukraine's demand for an impartial international investigation remains relevant not only regarding the circumstances of the downing of the Il-76 plane, but also regarding what was actually inside - whether there were people there, whether there were ammunitions, who was there besides the crew.
"Currently, russia has not intensified the process, has not confirmed what concerns the open international investigation," he emphasized.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, on the morning of February 24, residents of the Belgorod Oblast of the russian federation reported a plane crash in the Korochansky district.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine made an official statement that the Armed Forces of Ukraine will continue to take measures to destroy means of delivery, control the airspace to destroy the terrorist threat, including in the Belgorod-Kharkiv direction.
Later, the Armed Forces of Ukraine confirmed the fact that the Il-76 had fallen. It was reported that, according to sources, the plane could carry shells for the S-300.
At the same time, russian officials and propagandists began to claim that there were allegedly 65 captured Ukrainian servicemen on board the plane, who were being transported to the Belgorod Oblast for exchange.
The Defense Intelligence confirmed that an exchange of POWs was planned for January 24, but it did not take place. In addition, the aborted exchange of prisoners, which was planned for January 24, was supposed to be one of the largest in the history of a full-scale war. The Defense Intelligence also stated that Ukraine does not have reliable and comprehensive information about who exactly was on board the russian Il-76 aircraft and how many.
The Security Service of Ukraine opened a criminal investigation into the crash of the russian air force IL-76 aircraft in the Belgorod Oblast of russia.
At the same time, the Defense Intelligence emphasized that the aggressor state of russia did not show readiness to transfer to Ukraine the bodies of prisoners of war who were allegedly on board the Il-76 military transport plane.
Meanwhile, on February 1, the Ukrainian Schemes (Radio Svoboda) published Planet Labs satellite images from January 31 of the crash site of the russian Il-76 military transport plane near Belgorod of the aggressor state of the russian federation.
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