Russia and Ukraine traded accusations Thursday over the crash of a military transport plane that Moscow said was carrying prisoners of war and was shot down by Kyiv's forces, another heated episode in the information war that has been a feature of the conflict.
Though investigators reportedly found the flight recorders a day after Wednesday's crash there was little hope that the circumstances would be clarified in a war where both sides have often used accusations to sway opinion at home and abroad.
The Il-76 crashed in a huge ball of fire in a rural area of Russia's Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, and authorities there said all 74 people on board, including 65 POWs, six crew members and three Russian servicemen, were killed.
The crash triggered a spate of claims and counterclaims, but neither side offered evidence for their accusations, and The Associated Press could not independently confirm who was aboard or how the plane was downed.
Russia alleged that Kyiv shot down the plane with two missiles and said the prisoners of war were headed for an exchange. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described it as "a totally monstrous act." Russia's top investigative agency, known as the Investigative Committee, opened a criminal probe Thursday on charges that the crash was a terrorist act.
Ukraine responded by casting doubt on the fact that POWs were aboard and putting forward their own theories, including implying that the plane may have posed a threat.
Without mentioning the crash, the general staff of the Ukrainian military said the country would target any Russian military transport plane believed to be delivering missiles, especially near the border.
Ukrainian officials have noted that Moscow did not ask for any specific airspace to be kept safe for a certain length of time, as it has in past prisoner exchanges.
Mykola Oleshchuk, Ukraine's air force commander, alleged that "rampant Russian propaganda is directing a fake stream of information to the international audience, attempting to discredit Ukraine in the eyes of the global community."
Ukrainian officials confirmed that a prisoner exchange was due to happen Wednesday. But they said it was called off. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine would push for an international investigation.
At an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council called by Russia late Thursday, Russian and Ukrainian diplomats clashed in person.
Russia's deputy U.N. ambassador Dmitry Polyansky accused Ukraine of a premeditated attack that sacrificed its own citizens "to Western geopolitical interests." He said that if a preliminary investigation showing the plane was hit by an American or German missile is confirmed, the Western countries that supplied the weapons "will become direct participants of this crime."
Polyansky reiterated Russian claims that the Ukrainian General Staff initially issued a congratulatory statement saying the plane was downed intentionally, and started a cover-up when they realized Ukrainian prisoners were on board.
He praised the "heroism" of the Russian pilots who at the last moment flew the plane away from residential areas so there were no casualties on the ground.
Ukraine's deputy UN ambassador Khrystyna Hayovyshyn said Ukraine fulfilled its obligations Wednesday and transferred Russian prisoners safely to the agreed location for the swap.
The Russian side was supposed to ensure the safety of Ukrainian prisoners, but she said the Ukrainian side wasn't informed of the route and means of transportation of the captives, or told to secure the airspace in the vicinity of the city of Belgorod during a specified period.
Following the crash, Hayovyshyn said, Russian military and security officials didn't allow emergency workers to inspect the site "as per protocol." And she said that according to Ukrainian military intelligence, "only five bodies were sent to the local morgue in Belgorod" and no human remains are visible on footage from the site.
The discovery of the transport plane's flight recorders was reported Thursday by the state-owned RIA Novosti news agency, citing emergency services.
Ukraine's human rights ombudsman, Dmytro Lubinets, demanded access to the crash site for international experts and said Ukraine is ready to provide information.
"We definitely don't have anything to hide," he told AP reporters.
As the conflict approaches the two-year mark, the 1,500-kilometre (930-mile) front line has been largely static amid a second winter of fighting. With both sides seeking to replenish their weapons stockpiles, the war recently has focused on long-range strikes.
Earlier this month, in a significant blow to the Kremlin's forces, the Ukrainian air force claimed to have shot down a Russian early warning and control plane that can spot targets up to 650 kilometres (400 miles) away and a key command centre aircraft that relays information to troops on the ground.
Lubinets said he could not predict how the crash would affect future POW exchanges.
"My experience is that you can never be sure of anything when you are negotiating something with the Russian side," he said.
Andrei Kartapolov, head of the defence affairs committee in the lower house of the Russian parliament, said Russia would continue exchanging prisoners despite the crash.
"We can't abandon our boys and so we will speak to the devil himself to get them out," he told reporters.
Meanwhile, Ukraine's largest oil and gas company, Naftogaz, said Thursday that one of its data centres had come under a large-scale cyberattack that shut down the company's websites and call centres.
Ukraine's national postal service, Ukrposhta, and the State Service for Transport Safety each also reported technical failures. But neither specified if they were the result of cyberattacks.
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Edith M. Lederer contributed to this report from the United Nations
