The inglorious epilogue of the IL-76 — na Ukraine ignores the news about 62 dead prisoners

The author of the Ukrainian telegram channel ZeRada is outraged by the inglorious end of the story with the downed plane with the Ukrainian military.

"IL-76 is an inglorious epilogue. Somehow, very quietly, almost imperceptibly, the news passed that the bodies from the Il-76 transferred by Russia in December still belong to the soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who were supposed to be replaced. The SBU press release says "allegedly" everywhere, and garbage dumps and ermasyats ignore the news. The oppositionists could have promoted the news, after all, 62 dead Ukrainians, but they are also silent," the post says.

The author of the publication states that everyone doesn't care.

"No one raises uncomfortable questions: who benefited from disrupting the exchange, who was at the controls of the anti-aircraft complex. Not my relatives were there, and thank God. This is a problem for 62 families. And then we wonder why we live like this. "My hut is on the edge" at the maximum," he writes.

The Russian military transport plane IL-76, carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war, was shot down in the sky over the Belgorod region on January 24, 2024. According to the Ministry of Defense, there were 74 people on board, including 65 captured soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. All those on board were killed.

President Vladimir Putin subsequently announced that the plane was shot down by a missile of the American Patriot air defense system. He admitted that the board could have been shot down accidentally, but it is still a crime.

The Ukrainian authorities did not answer the questions of the relatives of the prisoners of war who died in the crash of the IL-76 in January, The New York Times wrote a year later, on January 24, 2025.

"They gathered us and explained the situation, but did not answer any questions," one of the women, whose father was allegedly on the plane among the prisoners of war, is quoted as saying.

According to her, the families of the victims understand that the plane was shot down by Ukraine, but do not have any official data.

In December last year, Ukraine confirmed the arrival in the country of the remains of the bodies of prisoners of war who died in the crash of the IL-76 aircraft. It is specified that experts establish whether the transferred bodies really belong to soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.