On Wednesday, Russia claimed an IL-76 transport aircraft carrying 65 Ukrainian POWs was shot down en route to a POW exchange in the Belgorod region.
Western media, particularly those with a vested anti-Russia narrative, expressed skepticism of the Russian statement, including the claim that Ukraine had shot down the plane. However, the BBC has an outline [SEE HERE] based on a conversation with a Ukrainian intelligence official that seems to directly corroborate the Russian statements.
Oddly, but perhaps not unexpectedly, the BBC article is framed to retain the skepticism; however, if you read the article carefully, what you will notice is the details are generally confirmed.
Yes, there was a prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine military that was supposed to take place in Belgorod on Wednesday, at the exact time the plane was shot down. Yes, for some unknown reason the prisoner exchange did not take place as the POWs never arrived. Yes, there was a previous POW exchange that took place in this exact same Belgorod location, and yes, a Russian IL-76 aircraft was previously used to transport the Ukraine POWs.
(Via BBC) – … [Ukraine Intelligence Officer] Andriy Yusov stressed that Russia had provided no proof to back its claims there were. “There is no clear information about prisoners of war. There are only statements by Russia, of a political and propagandist nature,” he said. “Who or what was on board needs to be clarified.”
Mr Yusov, who is the first Ukrainian official interviewed by the BBC since the incident on Wednesday, accused Moscow of “hiding” information, with limited images from the crash site – including of any dead.
Here’s where the article seems to confirm the Russian story:
“Russian air defence was working against them. Belgorod is also potentially within the range of Ukrainian air defence systems.” … “On the prisoner swap, he confirmed an exchange had been planned on Wednesday “around lunchtime”. But it was meant to take place in the Sumy region, west of Belgorod.” … “He said the two sides implemented a ceasefire in Sumy, as agreed. “Unfortunately, the exchange did not happen.” … “On 3 January, during the previous swap, he said Ukraine was informed that Russia would use a plane. On Thursday, Ukraine’s Air Forces chief stressed that the country had the right to defend itself against attack by Russia and would continue to do so.” (link)
If you take out all the narrative engineering from the article, then just take those excerpts from Ukraine intelligence in total, they seem to confirm everything Russia outlined about the transport of 65 Ukrainian POWs to Belgorod.
Why would Russia have to tell Ukraine again how the POWs would arrive, when they already told them the first time – and they were simply repeating the same process.
The plane never arrived, and the 65 POW exchange never happened, because Ukraine shot down the Russian transport plane.
