Who shot down IL-76?

Novyevropa talked with a military expert about versions of the crash of the aircraft near Belgorod, presumably with Ukrainian prisoners

On the morning of January 24, the IL-76 military transport aircraft crashed in the Belgorod region. All those who were on board died due to the hit by the Ukrainian military missile, says the Russian Ministry of Defense. According to the agency, there were captured Ukrainians on board, who were taken to exchange.

Novyevropa talked with a military expert about the crash near Belgorod.

According to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, at 11:15, the Russian military transport aircraft was shot down, which executed the flight along the route of the Chkalovsky-Belgorod airfield. The Russian military department claims that the aircraft transported Ukrainian troops to exchange:

“The Ukrainian leadership knew perfectly well that, according to the current practice, today the military transport aircraft would be transported to the Belgorod airfield for Ukrainian military personnel to exchange ... The defeat of the aircraft was carried out by the Armed Forces of Ukraine from the Liptsi district of the Kharkov region using the anti-aircraft missile system,” the Russian Ministry of Defense said. “The radio equipment of the Russian Air Force was observed by the launch of two Ukrainian missiles.”

According to the Russian side, there were six crew members on board the aircraft, 65 Ukrainian troops for exchange and three Russian military accompanying them.

The crew and all passengers of the aircraft died.

The propagandist Margarita Simonyan published a list of Ukrainian prisoners of war, which, according to her, were on board the broken IL-76. The New Gazeta Europefound that at least 13 of them were exactly in Russian captivity. At the same time, at least one person returned to Ukraine at the beginning of the year.

The video that appears in social networks shows how a large fragment is separated from the aircraft heading to the ground, and the flame flashes from the side. This can be both the result of a missile attack and the consequences of the explosion inside the aircraft, a Russian military expert told Novaya Gazeta Europe on the basis of anonymity.

The senator, a former military pilot and ex-head of the Russian Air Force, Viktor Bondarev, told reporters that the crew of the falling side managed to report to the ground control point on external influence on the aircraft.

According to the interlocutor of Novo-Europe, most likely, the Armed Forces of Ukraine could use the Patriot anti-aircraft missile system to destroy the Russian aircraft. The radius of the shooting of this complex on aircraft is 160 km. The aircraft crash site is located approximately 50 kilometers from the border with Ukraine.

“True, it is very dangerous to bring such a complex close to the front line,” says the interlocutor of Novo-Europe. - Ukraine, judging by open data, has only three Patriot complexes. Only these air defense systems can shoot down the dagger hypersonic missiles. They covered the sky of Kyiv. Should one of the complexes be dragged into the enemy artillery zone to bring down the IL-76? At the same time, the Su-34 fly at the front, which will bomb Ukrainian positions, Su-35 and Su-30, that is, a bunch of really important goals. But the Armed Forces of Ukraine are knocked down by a shed that can carry drypers or shape. ”

Another version is the use by Ukraine of the Far Radius of the C-200.

Such a complex is poorly adapted for shelling maneuverable targets, but the clumsy and huge IL-76 transporter for the S-200 would be a light target.

Ukraine removed the S-200 from weapons many years ago. However, during the war, the missiles of this complex were redone to launch on ground targets. It is likely that the Armed Forces of Ukraine managed to reanimate the air defense system for shelling of Russian aircraft.

The interlocutor of Novo-Europe recalled the successful ambushes of Ukrainian air defense for Russian aircraft that occurred above the Azov Sea, in the Kherson region, and earlier in the Bryansk region of Russia.

The Ukrainian media, who at first wrote about the successful operation of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, quickly took their words back after the report that prisoners flew on board the crashed aircraft.

“I am very poorly imagining a situation in which the Russian side would report to the enemy about what type of transport it planned to transport prisoners of war for exchange,” the expert notes. -Most likely, the APU anti-aircraft gunners were sure that they were “working” on a military aircraft delivering some weapons or personnel of the enemy army. The enemy’s military aircraft is an absolutely legal goal in this situation. ”

Update 19:03
The Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine was called the crash of the aircraft in the Belgorod region by a Russian provocation. The statement of the special services states that the Ukrainian side did not warn about the need to ensure the safety of airspace in the Belgorod area, "as has been done repeatedly in the past." Also in the GUR they said that Ukraine did not inform about the number of vehicles, routes and forms of delivery of prisoners.

“Planting a transport aircraft in a 30-kilometer warning zone cannot be safe and in any case should be discussed by both parties, because otherwise it endanates the entire exchange process,” the GUR believes.

The special services emphasized that Russia was supposed to ensure the security of Ukrainian prisoners of war, and that Ukraine has fulfilled its all agreements, delivering Russian prisoners to the place appointed for exchange.

“Based on this, we can talk about planned and deliberate actions of the Russian Federation in order to destabilize the situation in Ukraine and weaken international support for our state,” the GUR noted.