In response to the news of the downing of an Il-76 aircraft in Russia, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has issued a statement saying that it would “continue to destroy means of delivery and control the airspace to eliminate the terrorist threat, including on the Belgorod-Kharkiv front”.

Source: official statement by the General Staff on Facebook

Details: On the morning of 24 January, after the news broke, Ukrainska Pravda’s sources in the General Staff said that it was the Armed Forces of Ukraine that downed the Il-76 aircraft. “It was bringing death to people in Kharkiv Oblast – carrying missiles for S-300s [anti-aircraft missile systems],” one source said. There has been no official confirmation of this information.

The General Staff has now noted in its statement that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are taking all measures to protect Ukraine and Ukrainians.

The General Staff reiterated that the Russians’ inability to achieve any results on the battlefield is adding to their strategy of terror, including on the Kharkiv front. The Russians have carried out 19 missile attacks on Kharkiv Oblast over the past week alone.

They have deployed 26 S-300 anti-aircraft missiles and 3 Iskander-M ballistic missiles.

Sixteen people, including one child, have been killed in the attacks.

A total of 78 people have been injured. In total, 13 buildings have been destroyed, including one hospital, three educational institutions and six residential buildings.

The military stated that in order to reduce the missile threat, the Armed Forces of Ukraine do not only control the airspace, but also closely monitor the launch points of missiles and the logistics of their supply, especially the use of military transport aircraft.

Quote: “The recorded intensity of bombardments is directly related to the increase in the number of military transport aircraft that have recently been heading to the Belgorod airfield.

With this in mind, the Armed Forces of Ukraine will continue to take measures to destroy means of delivery and control the airspace to eliminate the terrorist threat, including on the Belgorod-Kharkiv front.”

Background:

• An Il-76 aircraft crashed in the Korocha district of Russia’s Belgorod Oblast. Sources in the General Staff stated the plane was carrying S-300 anti-aircraft missiles.

• Following the downing of a Russian Il-76 transport aircraft in the Russian Federation’s Belgorod Oblast, a number of Russian media outlets cited Andrei Kartapolov, chairman of the Russian State Duma Committee on Defence. He claimed that the plane contained dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war who had been taken for exchange, and Ukrainian Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets stated that he was looking into the situation.

• The Defence Intelligence of Ukraine commented that a prisoner swap between Russia and Ukraine was supposed to take place on Wednesday, 24 January.

• Russian propagandist Margarita Simonyan has published a list of the Ukrainian prisoners of war who she alleges were on board the Il-76 aircraft that crashed – but one of them is a soldier who had been swapped earlier.

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