KYIV: Ukraine will do every little thing potential to safe a global investigation into the downing of a Russian army transport aircraft, the nation’s ombudsman mentioned on Thursday (Jan 25), a day after Moscow accused Kyiv of intentionally capturing it down.
Russia mentioned the Ilyushin Il-76 army aircraft was carrying 65 captured Ukrainian troopers to a prisoner trade when it was downed on Wednesday close to the the Russian metropolis of Belgorod close to the Ukrainian border, killing all 74 folks on board.
Kyiv has challenged elements of Moscow’s narrative and has not confirmed that Ukrainian prisoners had been on board.
“We demand a recognised worldwide investigation,” ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets informed nationwide tv, including he would ship letters to the United Nations and the Worldwide Committee of the Crimson Cross calling for such a probe.
“Relating to a global investigation, I consider that we’ll do our half to make it occur. However I’m satisfied that … the Russians will make loud statements however won’t permit anybody in. They won’t hand over any supplies for evaluation and can merely blame Ukraine,” he mentioned.
“In line with my info, I can not say positively that there have been certainly prisoners of battle. We didn’t see any indication that there was such a lot of folks on the aircraft,” Lubinets added.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned on Wednesday night that higher readability was wanted about what occurred, notably when it got here to who was on board, and accused Russia of “enjoying with the lives of Ukrainian prisoners”.
Russia has branded the downing of the aircraft a “terrorist act”.
On Thursday the Kremlin mentioned no person might say at this stage how the incident would have an effect on future prisoner swaps.
