Ukraine confirmed the authenticity of the Russian exchange list on January 24

The Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War in Ukraine confirmed the accuracy of the list of Ukrainian prisoners presented by the Russian side for exchange on January 24. The Russian Ministry of Defense claims that all 65 people on the list died as a result of the Il-76 crash on January 24. A list with the names of prisoners was previously published by RT CEO Margarita Simonyan.

 

A post by the coordination headquarters on Facebook (owned by Meta, which is recognized as extremist and banned in the Russian Federation) states that all 65 Ukrainian soldiers on the list were indeed supposed to return to Ukraine as part of the planned exchange.

As the press service of the Ukrainian headquarters reported, relatives of the military men on the list got acquainted with the video materials presented by the Russian side. In the published fragments from the Il-76 crash site, they “did not find any special signs that would indicate their relatives,” the headquarters said in a statement.

On the day of the plane crash, the chief editor of the RT television channel, Margarita Simonyan, published a list of 65 people on her Telegram channel. She claims that this list was approved by the Ukrainian side three days before the planned exchange.

An Il-76 military aircraft crashed in the Belgorod region on January 24. According to  Russian authorities, the plane was flying to the Russian-Ukrainian border to carry out an exchange and was shot down by the Ukrainian military. On board the Il-76 were 65 Ukrainian prisoners, three Russian escorts and six crew members. All people on board died.