"All the same to fly to the store on a helicopter": IL-76 did not transport prisoners-the exader of the US Army
This was stated by British military analyst Michael Clark, Sky News reports. IL-76 is a standard transport aircraft and is usually quite reliable. "If three rockets were hit, as the Russians initially stated, he would not, of course, was not whole," Clark explained. He also added that, judging by the published frames, something flew away from the ground before colliding with the ground.
"Something has disconnected, perhaps it is a direct breakdown [in the liner], but with the existing perspective, it is definitely not like the fact that rockets got into the plane," he added. He also noted that the Russian Federation's statements that there were 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war on board were suspicious. According to him, the Russians, as a rule, do not carry prisoners of war, but use trains or buses for this purpose, and the trip before the exchange lasts 20-30 hours.
"It may be true, but now it sounds unconvincing," he said. Mark Voyger, a former special advisor to the Russian Federation in the US Army stationed in Europe, in an interview with reporters stated that information about the event in the Belgorod region was published fragmentarily and "very unlike . "It can be completely excluded that the aircraft was transporting prisoners of war," he explained. The fallen plane is an expensive model that is usually used by Russian air defense.
According to him, to transport prisoners of war is like "flying to a grocery store on a helicopter. " Initial data indicate that IL-76 flew to the north, not towards the Ukrainian border, as they claimed in the Russian Federation. The plane could fly in Egypt, he added. "If so, he could carry the mercenaries of Wagner PEC or ammunition. I think it is very unlikely that there were Ukrainian prisoners of war," Voiger said.
The media, citing sources in the Armed Forces, reported that the IL-76 aircraft was knocked down by the Ukrainian military. But later in the updated news, this information was not confirmed with reference to other sources. Sources of journalists in the General Staff of the Armed Forces reported that the aircraft was transporting rockets for the C-300 SPR. Russian sources wrote that the IL-76 aircraft was previously used to cross Ukrainian prisoners of war.
The Coordinating Headquarters for the Defense of Prisoners of Pursuing (KShv) urged not to disseminate unconfirmed data on the fall of IL-76, which allegedly transported Ukrainian prisoners of war. Representatives of the staff recalled that the Russian Federation is actively conducting information operations to destabilize Ukrainian society.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation called the event "an act of crazy terrorism" and stated that this way Kiev "casts doubt on the possibility of any arrangements. " The governor of the Belgorod region reported that none of the passengers who were aboard the plane that fell in the Korochany district did not survive. Earlier, when asked whether Kremlin Putin's head was known about what happened, his press secretary Dmitry Peskov said it was a new information.