The fall of Il-76 near Belgorod: The Russian Federation should not be taken for a pure coin-The Telegraph
After a while, the Russian media, as well as the Defense Ministry press service, began to write that instead of the C-300 missiles on board the aircraft were Ukrainian prisoners of war, which were to be exchanged for Russians. "We are in the midst of the information warfare, when one party's public statements can easily create a strong narrative to strike the other almost a deadly blow," - said the correspondent of the British edition, Joe Barnes.
The editor -in -chief of Russia Today Margarita Simonyan, for which international sanctions operate, published a list of 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war, which, according to her, were on board. This is not enough to confirm that there were 74 people on board IL-76, including six crew pilots and three accompanying ones.
If the Russian Federation has decided to confirm that Ukraine has shot down a plane with its own prisoners of war, it would be possible to publish a video or photos that would be visible that Ukrainians were getting on the plane. Moscow could also publish details that prove that Kiev was aware of how they were transporting prisoners of war - a regular part when coordinating the exchange of prisoners. But not only these circumstances indicate that Moscow's claims are unfounded.
Passengers are not visible in the published photos of the aircraft. In 2014, when MH17 Malaysia Airlines was knocked down over the Donbass, the photos of the accident were visible among the debris. If the Kremlin's claims are true, for President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky it will not only become a headache: the US and other allies are not interested in launching their missiles in the Russian Federation.