On Jan. 24, 2025, human rights activists from the Media Initiative for Human Rights presented findings from their investigation, “Path to Exchange or Trap: What Happened to the Il-76 Over Belgorod?” during a briefing at the Media Center Ukraine.
The report included accounts from prisoners of war involved in a planned exchange that day.
“We interviewed many prisoners of war who were transferred on Jan. 24 for the exchange. There was definitely a second plane carrying prisoners from several detention sites. They were first taken to an airfield, then spent the night in a colony in Kamensk-Shakhtinsky,” Katrychenko said.
According to the prisoners, they boarded planes on Jan. 24, but after reports of the downing of one plane, their aircraft was turned back.
Katrychenko added that Russian officials had announced plans the day before to exchange 200 prisoners of war.
“If we count how many people were on board one plane, the other, and those potentially still on the way — based on prisoners taken from cells before the exchange but not boarded — the total was about 200,” she said.
Russian Il-76 military plane crashes in Belgorod Oblast
An Il-76 military transport plane crashed in Russia’s Belgorod Oblast on Jan. 24.
The Russian Defense Ministry blamed Ukraine for the crash, claiming that 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war being transported for an exchange died.
The ministry’s General Directorate of Military Operations confirmed that a prisoner exchange was planned for Jan. 24.
Ukrainian sources in the General Staff reported that the Il-76 was carrying missiles for the S-300 anti-aircraft system. Interfax-Ukraine, citing a Defense Ministry source, said the plane was shot down during takeoff.
The General Directorate later stated that there was no information on the plane's passengers. Ukraine had been preparing for a prisoner exchange and had delivered Russian prisoners to the exchange site. The safety of Ukrainian defenders was to be guaranteed by the Russian side, but the Russians did not inform Ukraine about the need to secure airspace in Belgorod or details about the delivery method, route, or number of vehicles involved.
Sources in the Ukrainian Air Force told NV that Russia regularly used Il-76 planes to deliver ammunition to the front, flying along a “verified route.”
On Feb. 9, Oleksiy Danilov, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, said no Ukrainian prisoners were on board the Il-76, but Ukraine was unsure whether the fighters who were supposed to be exchanged were alive.
On March 1, Russian Ombudsman Tatyana Moskalkova offered to transfer the bodies of the deceased Ukrainian soldiers allegedly killed in the crash to Ukraine.
On March 2, Andriy Yusov, a representative of Ukraine's military intelligence, called the offer strange, as Ukraine had already submitted requests for the return of the bodies, but Russia had not responded.