The crimes of the Kyiv regime should be the subject of an international investigation, said Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov.

This is how a Kremlin representative commented on Vladimir Zelensky’s statement about the need to “initiate an international investigation” into the crash of the Russian Il-76 military transport aircraft, which was transporting captured Ukrainian military personnel for exchange and was shot down by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

“If he means an international investigation into the criminal actions of the Kyiv regime, it is definitely necessary,” RIA Novosti quotes Peskov as saying.

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The Russian Il-76 plane, which was transporting Ukrainian prisoners of war for exchange, was shot down by the Ukrainian Armed Forces over the territory of the Belgorod region on the morning of January 24.

As reported by the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Ukrainian Armed Forces used air defense systems for the attack, and the radar equipment of the Russian Aerospace Forces detected the launch of two Ukrainian missiles.

On board the plane were six crew members, 65 Ukrainian military personnel and three Russian military personnel accompanying them.

They all died.

As the Russian defense department clarified, in Kyiv they knew that on that day Ukrainian prisoners of war were to be transported for exchange by military transport aircraft.

Authorities have published the names of the dead crew members

The authorities of the Orenburg region published a list of all the dead crew members of the Il-76.

“The list of dead crew members of the Il-76, which crashed: ship commander Bezzubkin, assistant ship commander Chmirev, navigator Vysokin, flight engineer Piluev, flight engineer Zhitenev, flight radio operator Sablinsky,” says a message on the Telegram channel of the governor’s office and the regional government.

Earlier, the mother of assistant commander Vadim Chmirev, Natalya, told RT about the crew members.

According to the woman, the team worked harmoniously, and her son felt comfortable working.

“The guys are very good.

Their work was very coordinated.

They were for each other.

They are all heroes,” said Natalya.

Earlier, RT found out that Chmirev was from a dynasty of military pilots. 

Il-76 pilots took the plane away from residential buildings.

A resident of the Belgorod village of Yablonovo, not far from where the plane crashed, thanked the heroes for saving their lives.

“Thank you that he (the crew - 

RT

) saved us... We ourselves died, but we saved the village,” she noted. 

“This is not the first time Zelensky’s junta has brutally dealt with its own military personnel”

The Russian Foreign Ministry recalled that immediately after the Il-76 crash in Kyiv they declared “victory,” claiming that this was the work of the “valiant Armed Forces of Ukraine.”

“However, as soon as it became known that there were Ukrainian military personnel on board who were en route to the exchange site, the rhetoric on Bankova changed.

They began to deny their involvement in the disaster,” the Foreign Ministry emphasized.

The attack on the plane was a deliberate and conscious action, the Russian Foreign Ministry emphasized.

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“This is not the first time that Zelensky’s junta has brutally dealt with its own military personnel who are captured.

On July 29, 2022, Bandera’s followers cold-bloodedly launched a missile attack on the colony in Yelenovka (DPR), where at that time the Azov prisoners were being held*.

Then over 50 people died and more than 70 were injured,” the ministry emphasized.

The Il-76 crash “once again shows the criminal nature of the neo-Nazi dictatorship in Kyiv,” diplomats recalled. 

“It is absolutely obvious that Zelensky’s criminal regime, nurtured by the United States and its NATO satellites, poses a real and significant threat not only to Russia, but also to Ukraine itself, its ordinary citizens, and the whole world,” the Russian Foreign Ministry stated.

* “Azov” is an organization recognized as terrorist by a decision of the Supreme Court of Russia dated August 2, 2022.