Moment Russian military plane 'carrying 65 Ukrainian POWs' crashes in huge fireball in border region: Kremlin says aircraft was shot down by 'missiles used by the West'

Moment Russian military transport plane nosedives and crashes

Video shows the Ilyushin Il-76 plunging from the sky and smashing into the ground in…

Mail Online

By RACHAEL BUNYAN and WILL STEWART and JAMES CALLERY

This is the moment a Russian military transport plane allegedly carrying 65 Ukrainian POWs nosedived towards a town before crashing and exploding on impact in the region of Belgorod on the border with Ukraine.

Dramatic video shows an out-of-control Ilyushin Il-76 plunging from the sky and smashing into the ground in front of horrified locals in the village of Yablonovo, which is just 26 miles from the Ukrainian border.

As the large 164ft plane slams into the ground, it explodes into a huge fireball that engulfs the 72-tonne jet in flames.

Within minutes of the crash, Russia claimed the military plane was carrying 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war, six crew and three people accompanying them, without providing any evidence. Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of Belgorod region, said all 74 people onboard had been killed in the crash.

Sources within the Ukrainian military had told local media that the downing of the Russian military aircraft was ‘their work’ and that it was carrying S-300 air defence missiles. But that claim was later retracted.

And Andrei Kartapolov, a member of Russia’s State Duma and a retired general, claimed the plane was shot down by three types of missiles that the West has supplied to Ukraine, without providing evidence.

He said investigations would reveal whether the missiles were the US-made Patriots or German IRIS-Ts.

A Russian military transport plane carrying 63 people today nosedived and crashed in the region of Belgorod on the border with Ukraine

Video shows the Ilyushin Il-76 plunging from the sky and smashing into the ground in front of horrified locals in the Korochansky district this morning

As the large 164ft plane slams into the ground, it explodes into a huge fireball that engulfs the 72-tonne jet in flames

As the 164ft plane crashes, the impact sparks a huge fireball that engulfs the 72-tonne jet in flames

Debris from the crashed Russian military plane in the village of Yablonovo

‘It was absolutely deliberate. They knew very well that the plane was en route, where it was going and the operators of (Ukrainian) surface-to-air missile systems cannot mistake transport planes for military planes or helicopters as targets,’ Kartapolov said.

‘It was done deliberately to sabotage the prisoner exchange,’ Kartapolov said, without providing evidence to back up his claims.

Vyacheslav Volodin, the top lawmaker in Russia’s lower house of parliament, parroted the same line and claimed the plane had been ‘shot down’ by Kyiv and blamed Western missiles…