General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has published a statement in which noted that russian forces regularly use Il-76 military transport aircraft for delivering anti-aircraft and tactical ballistic missiles to the area near Belgorod. Moreover, the intensity of shelling is correlated with the increasing flights to and fro the Belgorod airport.
The message comes out against the background of the air crash of an Il-76 aircraft in Belgorod, russia, on the morning of January 24th.
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"In order to reduce missile threat specifically, the Armed Forces of Ukraine not only control the airspace but also track the missile launch spots and the logistics of their supply in great detail, especially [those done] with the use of military transport aviation," reads the statement from the General Staff.
Although the Ukrainian top military don't confirm their involvement in today's downing of Il-76 in Belgorod, the very next paragraph clarifies this topic:
"That considered, the Armed Forces of Ukraine will continue to take measures to destroy the means of delivery, and control the airspace for destruction of terrorist threat, including the one coming from the Belgorod–Kharkiv direction," the Staff says, highlighting the threat posed to Kharkiv, a major Ukrainian city, adjacent to the russian border and subjected to regular shellings from russia.
Worth noting, almost right after the reports of Il-76 crash in russia, some open sources suggested the aircraft was carrying anti-aircraft missiles on board. Such missiles are often used as ballistic rockets for attacks on Kharkiv.
The russian side, however, announced that the Il-76 had people on board, more specifically Ukrainian POWs, and even released the name list of each one. A review of this list revealed that at least 17 of the 65 Ukrainians mentioned in it had long returned home to Ukraine during earlier POW exchanges.
Besides, the video from the crash site has no characteristic indications that the Il-76 was carrying over sixty prisoners of war.
Ukrainian authority responsible for POW exchanges notified today that russia had intensified PsyOPs against Ukraine, the investigation into the Kremlin's claims of Ukrainian military servicemen on Il-76 is underway.
From another perspective, the announcement of people being on board of the russian military transporter could be an indication of russia willing to use this incident as a pretext to stop POW exchanges with Ukraine.
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