But in their statements about the incident, senior Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelensky, have not denied shooting down the plane, and some have emphasized Ukraine’s right — and urgent need — to target Russian military aircraft given Moscow’s ongoing invasion, constant airstrikes on Ukrainian cities and push to seize more territory.
Zelensky said Wednesday evening he would insist on an international investigation. In reply Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused Kyiv of killing its own soldiers. He called the downing of the plane “a monstrous act … beyond comprehension” and said Moscow would welcome an international inquiry.
“If he means an international investigation into the criminal acts of the Kyiv regime, then it is definitely needed,” Peskov told journalists.
Russia has repeatedly sought to thwart international investigations, including into the 2020 poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny with a chemical weapon, and the 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine, for which two former Russian security service officers were convicted of murder in a Dutch court.
Zelensky in his speech Wednesday evening implied that Ukraine’s air force had shot down the plane, which crashed within striking distance of Ukraine. Russia regularly launches deadly strikes from the Belgorod region into Ukraine, including on Tuesday, when 18 Ukrainians were killed across the country.
Regardless of whether Ukrainian POWs were indeed on board the plane, the incident appears to mark a grave intelligence failure on the part of Ukraine — which was not immediately able, or willing, to confirm who or what they believed was on board the aircraft.
The chief of Ukraine’s air force accused Russia on Thursday of intentionally spreading fake information “to discredit Ukraine.”
“Their clear goal is to diminish international support for our country,” Lt. Gen. Mykola Oleshchuk wrote on Telegram. “It won’t succeed! Ukraine has the right to defend itself and destroy the aggressor’s means of aerial attack.”
Ukraine’s State Security Service, the SBU, announced Thursday that it has opened an investigation. Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian parliamentary commissioner for human rights, said on Ukrainian television that he could not confirm whether prisoners of war were on the flight, but he asserted that if there were videos or other evidence confirming such casualties, Russia “would have already used them.”
“We did not see any signs that there were so many people on the plane — citizens of Ukraine or noncitizens of Ukraine,” he said. Lubinets also called for international experts to investigate.
Ukraine’s military intelligence directorate did confirm that an exchange of prisoners that was set to take place Wednesday did not occur. It also asserted that Ukraine was not informed in advance by Russia of any transport plans for prisoners, and had not been warned to secure the airspace over Belgorod.
The Russian Defense Ministry said Ukraine was aware of the plans. In addition to the 65 POWs, Russia said that six crew members and three other individuals were onboard the plane and died.
Adding to the swirl of recriminations, Margarita Simonyan, the head of the Russian state propaganda channel RT, published a list of names and birth dates that she said documented the Ukrainian POWs on board. News outlets quickly reported that some of those named by Simonyan appeared to be prisoners released in previous swaps.
Zelensky in his somber video address on Wednesday evening said he had gathered top military officials and spoken to them about their “use of the air force.” Ukraine’s military intelligence directorate, he said, “is engaged in finding out the fate of all prisoners.”
Zelensky’s delay in commenting publicly on the crash until late Wednesday spurred some criticism in Ukraine. Lawmaker Oleksiy Honcharenko, posting on Telegram, said that officials stayed quiet due to “ratings and negativity. And they want to be involved only in the positive.”
Natalia Abbakumova in Riga, Latvia, and Serhiy Morgunov in Lisbon contributed to this report.