Kyiv launches crimintal probe into downing of Russian plane carrying ‘captured Ukranian soldiers’

KYIV – Ukraine’s SBU security service has launched an criminal investigation into the downing of a Russian military plane that Moscow said killed dozens of captured Ukrainian soldiers. 

Kyiv is yet to confirmed whether the Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed in Wednesday’s incident that occurred over Russia’s western Belgorod region, near the Ukraine border.

“The security service of Ukraine has opened a criminal investigation into the downing of an IL-76 Russian Air Force plane in the Belgorod region,” the SBU press service said.

“The SBU is currently taking a range of measures to clarify all the circumstances of the downing,” it said.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also called for an international probe into the incident.

Kyiv said that e prisoner exchange was scheduled for Wednesday at the border between the two countries, but added that Moscow had not informed it that the captured prisoners will be transported through a plane. 

Ukraine has also not officially confirmed or denied that it took down the Russian airplane, killing 65 Ukrainian soldiers on board.