MOSCOW, Russia
A military transport plane that Russia said was carrying 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war crashed Wednesday morning in a Russian region near Ukraine.
It wasn’t immediately clear
what caused the crash in the Belgorod region or if anyone survived. Our reporter could not confirm who was aboard the plane, and the Ukrainians
did not immediately comment.
A special military commission
was on the way to the crash site, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
Russian state news agency RIA
Novosti, citing the ministry, reported that the POWs were being transported to
the border region for a prisoner exchange.
Speaking on his morning call
with reporters, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said he
could not comment on the crash as he did not have enough information about it.
The Russian air force has
suffered a string of crashes that some observers have
attributed to a higher number of flights amid the fighting in Ukraine.
Seven
hundred days after the Kremlin’s forces rolled into Ukraine, the
1,500-kilometer (930-mile) front line largely static amid icy weather. As both
sides seek to replenish their weapons stockpiles, the war recently has focused
on long-range strikes.
Earlier, Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a major Russian missile attack on Tuesday had killed 18 people
and injured 130.
The barrage, employing more
than 40 ballistic, cruise, anti-aircraft and guided missiles hit 130
residential buildings in three Ukrainian cities, “all ordinary houses,”
Zelenskyy said on X, formerly Twitter.
Russia’s onslaught, which
included targets in the capital Kyiv and second-largest city Kharkiv, was the
heaviest in weeks and lent weight to Zelenskyy’s appeals for Western allies to
provide more military aid.
“This year, the main priority
is to strengthen air defense to protect our cities and towns, as well as defend
frontline positions,” Zelenskyy said on X late Tuesday.
Analysts say Russia stockpiled
missiles to pursue a winter campaign of aerial bombardment, while Ukraine has
sought to strike inside Russia with new types of drones.
Russia may have employed decoy
missiles in Tuesday’s attack in an effort to open up holes in Ukraine’s air
defenses, a U.S. think tank said.
The Washington-based Institute
for the Study of War said Moscow is likely trying to acquire more ballistic
missiles from foreign countries, including Iran and North Korea, because they
may be more effective in some circumstances.
A further barrage of Russian
S-300 missiles struck residential districts of Kharkiv late Tuesday, injuring
nine people and damaging residential buildings, regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov
said.
Russia denies its forces
strike civilian areas, although there is substantial evidence to the contrary.
Meanwhile, the Russian Defense
Ministry said that air defenses shot down four Ukrainian drones over the Oryol
region of western Russia early Wednesday.
Oryol Mayor Yuri Parakhin said
that several drones were downed over the city. He said there were no
casualties, but windows were shattered in several apartment buildings in the
city.
Another Ukrainian drone was
downed early Wednesday over the Belgorod border region, according to regional
Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov. He said there were no casualties or damage.
Ukraine’s allies have promised
to keep sending military aid packages, even though their resources are stretched. Help from the United States, by
far Ukraine’s single biggest provider, has also hit political snags.
The German defense ministry
announced Wednesday that it plans to send six SEA KING Mk41 multi-role
helicopters from Bundeswehr stocks to Ukraine.
Since the beginning of the war
military deliveries from Germany have amounted to around 6 billion euros ($6.52
billion), including substantial anti-aircraft and air defense systems, the
government said.
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