LIVE – Russian military plane crash: Moscow opens “terrorism” probe

Russia announced a “terrorism” investigation on Thursday, a day after the crash of a Russian military plane near the Ukrainian border that Moscow accused Kiev of deliberately shooting down the plane carrying 65 Ukrainian prisoners, according to Russian officials. .

“A criminal investigation into a terrorist act is ongoing following the crash of an Il-76 aircraft in the Belgorod region,” the Russian Intelligence Service said in a statement. The day before, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had called for an international investigation.

Investigative journalists in Ukraine have recently been targeted by “intimidating” measures that may be related to their ongoing investigations into corruption in the country, the organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) lamented on Thursday, “condemning increasing pressure against Ukrainian media.”

“A number of worrying cases of intimidation have emerged in recent weeks and we believe this is not a trend that will continue,” Pauline Maufrais, the organisation's Ukraine mission manager, told AFP.

Daria Trebova, a 26-year-old woman accused in the April 2023 bombing of a Russian nationalist blogger specializing in attacks on Ukraine, was sentenced to 27 years in prison on Thursday, a Russian judge announced.

Daria “Trebova was sentenced to 27 years in a penal colony,” the military court in St. Petersburg (northwest Russia), where the trial took place, said in a statement.

Three supporters of Russian nationalist protester Igor Kirkin, who was sentenced to four years in prison on Thursday, were arrested by police in court after the verdict, AFP journalists said on the site.

One of the arrested shouted “Freedom for Strelkov!” He was holding a poster. (name of Igor Kirkin, editor's note) and, like the two arrested, campaigned for the “Other Russia” party created by the nationalist writer Eduard Limonov.

The Russian judiciary sentenced Igor Kirkin, an ultra-nationalist and veteran of the Ukrainian Front, to four years in prison in 2014 for “extremism” in support of an attack on Ukraine and becoming a critic of the Kremlin.

“I'm serving the motherland,” he declared as the verdict was announced. This former commander of pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine was convicted in the Netherlands of shooting down MH17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014.

Ukraine's human rights commissioner Dmytro Lubinets demanded that the UN and the Red Cross access the site of a military plane crash in Russia on Thursday, the day before Moscow said it had taken 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war.

In the Russian region of Belgorod, “I request that representatives of these organizations join in inspecting the sites,” confirmed Dmytro Lubinets, who said he had contacted the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). We learned that the prisoners were exchanged by Russia on Wednesday. However, he said he was “confident” that “no one will be allowed to visit the site”.

Ukraine has claimed responsibility for Thursday's drone strike against an oil complex in southern Russia, which Russian officials said caused the fire, according to AFP's military source.

Ukrainian security services (SBU) attacked a refinery in Tuapse, a town on the Black Sea coast, and damaged an “oil processing unit,” the source said. At night, the regional authorities announced that an oil platform caught fire in Tuapse, without explaining the causes of the disaster.

Ukraine's special services (SBU) announced on Thursday that they were launching an investigation into the crash of a Russian military plane in the Belgorod border region, a day before Moscow accused Kiev of shooting it down with Ukrainian prisoners of war on board. .

“The investigation is being conducted under Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (violation of the laws and customs of war),” the SBU said, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Moscow of “playing” with Ukrainian lives. Prisoners.

As the two-year anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine approaches, Britain's chief of staff has called for a “citizen army to be trained” to counter the risks of conflict. He cited as an example the steps some European countries have taken to strengthen themselves in the face of the “Russian threat”.

Ukraine on Thursday said it had shot down 11 of 14 drones launched by Russia, which injured several people in the country's south.

The Ukrainian Air Force said air defense systems in the Odessa and Mykolaiv regions shot down the drones, while the Interior Ministry said the attacks wounded six people in Odessa and damaged residential buildings and warehouses.

The Kremlin describes the downing of the Russian military transport plane as a “monstrous act” by Kyiv, for which it blames Ukraine. “Ukrainians killed their prisoners, their citizens who were supposed to be at home in almost 24 hours, it's an absolutely brutal act,” Peskov was quoted as saying by news agencies. Russians.

According to Moscow, the plane was carrying 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war for exchange in the Russian region of Belgorod, 45 kilometers from the border with Ukraine, on Wednesday.

On Thursday at the request of Moscow, the UN The Security Council meets urgently, accusing Ukraine of shooting down a Russian military transport plane and killing all its passengers, including 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war who were to be exchanged.

The meeting was held at 5 p.m., the French leadership of the council announced, following a request made Wednesday by Russian diplomatic chief Sergei Lavrov, who is visiting New York.

Here's the latest key information on the conflict:

– Russia accused Ukraine of shooting down a Russian military transport plane over the Belgorod border on Wednesday, according to Moscow. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for an international investigation in his daily web address later in the evening. At the request of Moscow, the UN The Security Council will hold an emergency meeting on Thursday afternoon.

– Two people, including a 16-year-old boy, were killed and eight others wounded in a Russian strike on a village in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region on Wednesday, regional authorities announced.

– Russian lawmakers on Wednesday voted on first reading of a bill aimed at confiscating the money and assets of anyone found guilty of spreading “disinformation” about the military.

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