The Kremlin this Thursday supported the possibility of an international investigation into the plane crash on Wednesday in Belgorod province, near the border with Ukraine, after Moscow blamed Kiev for the shoot-down and said that the plane was carrying 65 Ukrainian prisoners who were involved in a war prisoner exchange should take part.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke late Wednesday in favor of an international investigation, saying it was “necessary to clarify all the facts,” prompting Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov to emphasize “if this is a criminal investigation.” Involvement in the criminal activities of the Kiev regime is absolutely necessary.
Likewise, he stressed that shooting down the plane was “a completely monstrous act” that was “incomprehensible,” before highlighting that “Ukrainians killed their prisoners, their citizens, who would literally be in their homes in a day .” according to the Russian news agency Interfax.
“The exchange of prisoners is a process that takes place in complete silence,” said Peskov, who avoided commenting on whether this event will affect the possibility of a new exchange in the future. “Nobody knows how this will affect the possibilities of expanding the (prisoner exchange) process,” he said. Finally, he emphasized that only the Russian army had the “prerogative” to report on the accident of the aircraft, an Il-76, and stressed that “it is still not clear what happened.”
“Investigators began examining the plane wreckage yesterday,” Peskov concluded. Belgorod authorities confirmed on Wednesday the deaths of the plane's 74 occupants, including 65 Ukrainian prisoners, before highlighting that an investigative commission has been set up to investigate the causes of the incident, which occurred in the Korochanski district near a “populated area”. For their part, the Ukrainian authorities said they were “analyzing” the information collected so far about the incident and had done so urged the population “not to jump to conclusions” on the grounds that Russia “uses terrible methods to destabilize Ukrainian society.”
Moscow also called for an emergency meeting in the United Nations Security Council to deal with the incident, although the Russian legation later confirmed that the organization's French presidency had refused to hold it on Wednesday and had scheduled it for Thursday, which they described as an attempt to “give his Ukrainian customers time”.