Russian president Vladimir Putin pledged on Friday to make public the findings of Moscow’s investigation into the crash of a transport plane on Wednesday.
He alleged that Kyiv’s forces shot down the aircraft despite having been informed that Ukrainian prisoners of war were on board.
In his first public remarks on Wednesday’s crash, Mr Putin repeated previous comments by Russian officials that “everything was planned” for a prisoner exchange that day when the Ilyushin IL-76 military transport went down in a rural area of Russia’s Belgorod region with 65 Ukrainian POWs on board.
“Knowing (the POWs were aboard), they attacked this plane. I don’t know whether they did it on purpose or by mistake, through thoughtlessness,” Mr Putin said of Ukraine at a meeting with students.
Authorities in the Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, said all 74 people on the plane, including six crew members and three Russian servicemen, were killed when the aircraft crashed in a huge ball of flames.
Mr Putin offered no details to support the allegation that Ukraine was to blame, which other Russian officials have also made.
Ukrainian officials have not said whether their military shot down the plane, but they called for an international investigation. Independent verification of Moscow’s claim was not possible.
Both sides in Russia’s 23-month-long war in Ukraine have often used accusations to sway opinion at home and abroad.
Wednesday’s crash triggered a spate of claims and counterclaims, but neither of the warring countries offered evidence for its accusations.
Ukrainian officials confirmed that a prisoner exchange was due to happen on Wednesday but said it was called off.
They cast doubt on whether POWs were on the IL-76 and put forward their own theories about what happened.
They also implied that the plane may have posed a threat. They said Moscow did not ask for any specific airspace to be kept safe for a certain length of time, as it has for past prisoner exchanges.
Mykola Oleshchuk, Ukraine’s air force commander, described Moscow’s claims as “rampant Russian propaganda”.
Mr Putin said the plane’s flight recorders had been found and Russian investigators’ findings will be published.
“There are black boxes, everything will now be collected and shown,” Mr Putin said.
“I will ask the investigative committee to make public, to the maximum extent possible, all the circumstances of this crime — so that people in Ukraine know what really happened.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has requested an international investigation.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here