Russia returns the bodies of 65 Ukrainian POWs killed in January’s Il-76 plane crash to Kyiv 

Russia has returned the bodies of the Ukrainian prisoners of war who were killed when the plane they were travelling in was downed over Russia’s southwestern Belgorod region in January, Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova told state news agency RIA Novosti on Monday.

Moskalkova, who said she had been present for the transfer of the bodies, said that Moscow and Kyiv continued to exchange the bodies of soldiers killed in the hostilities “to give their families and friends an opportunity to bury them”.

Ukraine has not so far confirmed Moskalkova’s claim.

Russia’s Defence Ministry blamed the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) for downing a Russian Il-76 transport plane over Russia’s Belgorod region in January, which it said had been transporting 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war for a pre-arranged exchange later the same day. It said that all 74 people on board, including 65 Ukrainian POWs, were killed in the crash.

While Ukraine has not directly confirmed that the plane was downed by the AFU, Ukraine’s military intelligence accused Russia shortly after the crash of deliberately putting Ukrainian soldiers’ lives at risk by transporting them in a military aircraft so close to the front line without first alerting Kyiv, adding that Russia’s “planned and deliberate actions” had been intended to destabilise Ukraine.

The head of Ukraine’s military intelligence Kyrylo Budanov said in January that neither Russia nor Ukraine could “fully answer” the question of what caused the Il-76 crash, noting that Moscow had failed to show the bodies of the soldiers that it said had been killed in the crash.

The most recent exchange of bodies between Moscow and Kyiv took place on 8 November, in which Ukraine received the bodies of 563 of its fallen soldiers in exchange for the bodies of 37 Russian soldiers.