The Russian Foreign Ministry announced that the Il-76 transport plane, which crashed earlier today in the Belgorod region with 74 people on board, was shot down by Ukraine, calling it a “barbaric act”..

Besides, the governor of Belgorod Vyacheslav Gladkov stated that all aboard the Il-76 are dead. “All the people on board (the plane) are dead,” Gladkov wrote on Telegram

The Russian Ministry of Defense had pointed out that 74 people were on board the Il-76, among them 65 Ukrainian prisoners of warwho would participate in a prisoner exchange, six crew members and three escorts.

“Around 11:00 Moscow time (10:00 Greek time) an Il-76 aircraft crashed in the Belgorod region (…) It was carrying 65 captured soldiers of the Ukrainian army who were being transported to the Belgorod region for a (prisoner) exchange, six crew members and three escorts,” the ministry announced a little earlier.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces deny ithowever, the information that Ukrainian prisoners were on board the aircraft and claim that the aircraft was carrying S-300 air defense missiles.

“A committee of the Air Force has left for the place where the plane fell in order to ascertain the causes of the disaster,” he added.

Already Russian Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin blamed Kiev that he shot down the aircraft using American and German missiles, without offering evidence for this claim.

A similar opinion was expressed by the Russian parliamentarian and retired general Andrei Kartapolovnoting that the aircraft was hit by three missiles.

“The Ukrainian leaders knew very well about the impending exchange and had been informed of the manner in which the captives would be delivered”he added.