UNITED NATIONS, January 26. /TASS/. By shooting down a Russian plane transporting Ukrainian captives, the Kiev government has demonstrated its inability to fulfill even technical agreements, Russian First Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Dmitry Polyansky said.

"How are we supposed to regard the statements and guarantees of the Kiev regime and its Western sponsors after the Kiev dictator once again clearly demonstrated that he is not capable of observing even a technical agreement on prisoner exchange?" he told the UN Security Council.

"Add to this context the Minsk Agreements that were used as a smokescreen for arming Ukraine, and the rejection of the already initialed draft peace treaty in Istanbul in April 2022 under Western pressure, and then it will be clear to you why we, without abandoning the negotiating option per se, proceed with our special military operation that was started to save lives of the people of Donbas," the Russian diplomat added.

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.