Russia had requested a Security Council meeting. On Wednesday, a Russian military transport plane crashed, killing all 74 people on board, according to Russia. It was said that among them were 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war.
Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Dmitry Polyansky, said: “All the information available to us shows that we are dealing with a well-planned and thought-out crime.” According to Moscow, Kiev shot down the plane before the planned prisoner exchange.
“The Ukrainian army command knew the route well and how the soldiers would be transported to the exchange site,” Polyansky said. According to him, Ukraine is sacrificing its forces for the sake of “Western geopolitical interests.”
Ukraine, in turn, strongly rejected these accusations. Kiev also denies that it received advance information about the incident. A Russian lawmaker claimed, on Thursday, that Ukrainian military intelligence received a warning before the plane entered the area where it was shot down.