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Police officers block traffic near the crash site

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REUTERS

After the crash of an Il-76 military aircraft near the border with Ukraine, Russia is continuing its offensive information policy.

The authorities in the Orenburg region published the names of the pilot and five other crew members who allegedly died in the incident.

The Russian state news agency RIA also reported, citing a representative of the rescue workers, that both the plane's flight recorder and voice recorder had been recovered.

According to Russian information, a total of 74 people were on board the plane, including 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war, according to the Defense Ministry in Moscow.

However, many questions remain unanswered in the case of the Ilyushin, which crashed in the Belgorod region on Wednesday.

Russia nevertheless took the event as an opportunity to question future prisoner exchanges with Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to the Interfax news agency, that no one could say how the alleged Ukrainian shootdown would affect the prospects for a future prisoner exchange.

Discussions about an exchange must remain confidential.

Security expert Major warns against hasty conclusions

Meanwhile, security expert Claudia Major warned against hasty conclusions.

Two facts are currently known, said the head of the security policy research group at the Science and Politics Foundation (SWP) on Thursday in the ZDF “Morgenmagazin”.

»The plane was shot down.

And a prisoner exchange was planned, which did not take place." This is currently "the only reliable information."

Everything else, such as lists of prisoner exchanges, has so far been “speculation.”

Therefore, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj's call for an international investigation into the cause of the crash is correct.

Zelenskyj made the demand for clarification in his evening speech on Wednesday.

He instructed Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba to provide foreign partners with all information available to Ukraine.

"Our state will insist on international clarification," he emphasized.

Zelensky also said: "It is obvious that the Russians are playing with the lives of Ukrainian prisoners, with the feelings of their relatives and with the emotions of our society."

sol/dpa/Reuters