UNITED NATIONS, January 26. /TASS/. At this point, all information about the downing of the Il-76 plane by the armed forces of Ukraine indicates that it was a deliberate crime, committed by the Kiev government, Russian First Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Dmitry Polyansky said.

"All data that is available to us today indicates that this was a deliberate, carefully plotted crime. The Ukrainian leadership was perfectly aware of the route and method of transportation of the PoWs to the previously agreed location," he told the UN Security Council.

In the diplomat’s words, "the Kiev regime, for some inexplicable reason decided to thwart it [the prisoner swap with Russia] in the most barbaric way possible."

On January 24, the Ukrainian military shot down a Russian Ilyushin-76 military transport plane carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war for exchange over the territory of Belgorod Region. There were 74 people on board, including 65 Ukrainian POWs. No one survived. The Russian Defense Ministry called what happened a terrorist act and stressed that Kiev had prior knowledge of the transportation of POWs for the exchange, which was to take place at the Kolotilovka border checkpoint, and attacked the plane in order to eventually blame the attack on Moscow.