Russia ready to hand over bodies of prisoners killed in plane crash
Russia has said it is ready to return the bodies of dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war it claimed were killed when Kyiv shot down a military transport jet.
Tatyana Moskalkova, Moscow’s human rights tsar, said talks were underway with Ukraine over a possible returns deal for their remains, state media reported on Friday.
“Yes, we are ready,” she said. “The bodies can be transferred according to the procedures that are in place.”
The Russian defence ministry accused Kyiv’s forces of shooting down the Il-76 cargo jet that it said was carrying 65 prisoners of war in January for a scheduled exchange.
So far, Moscow has not presented any evidence that supports its claim.
Oleksii Danilov, Ukraine’s national security adviser, said last month that there were no prisoners of war on the downed transport plane.
Mystery over shooting down
Kyiv has neither confirmed nor denied that it shot down the plane and has challenged Moscow’s account of who was on board and what happened.
Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, immediately called for an international investigation into the crash after the aircraft came down close to Belgorod, a Russian city 25 miles from the border with Ukraine.
American officials, cited in a report by The New York Times, said the Russian jet was likely to have been brought down by a Patriot missile battery.
The officials added that the Il-76 was probably carrying at least some Ukrainian prisoners onboard.
Ahead of a potential return deal for the bodies, Ms Moskalkova said she had informed Kyiv of DNA evidence of the victims.
Moscow’s top human rights officials did not confirm whether the information had been shared with her interlocutor Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian parliament’s human rights commissioner.
Mr Lubinets has offered no response to the claims.