Politics

Black boxes of Russia’s Il-76 plane found near crash site

Moscow, Jan 25 (EFE).- Rescue teams found the black boxes of the Russian Il-76 military plane on Thursday, a day after the aircraft went down in the Russian region of Belgorod, killing all 75 on board, including 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war.

“Both flight recorders are intact enough to be decoded. On Friday, they will arrive (in Moscow) on a special flight for delivery to a defense ministry lab for decoding,” an emergency spokesperson told the state-run TASS news agency.

The RIA Nóvosti news agency, citing another source, said the black boxes were in the crashed plane’s tail.

The aircraft crashed in the Korochansky district of Belgorod, bordering Ukraine, when it was carrying 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war to be exchanged for Russian soldiers, according to the Russian defense ministry.

The ministry said six crew members and three escort soldiers were on the plane.

Russia accused Ukrainian forces of shooting down the plane with an anti-aircraft missile.

The Kremlin said on Thursday that the future of the prisoner exchanges with Ukraine was “in question.”

“Nothing can be said” about the prospects of a prisoner swap between Russia and Ukraine, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

He said that no one could “tell how this will affect the prospects of the continuation of” the prisoner exchange.

“But I should repeat that this is a process that should be held in absolute silence.”

On the other hand, the head of the parliamentary defense panel, Andrey Kartapolov, said he was convinced that, despite the incident, the exchanges would continue because Russia could not leave its soldiers “to their own devices.”

“This is why we will hold conversations with the (Ukrainians)… because we need to get our guys back. We have no choice but to engage in a conversation,” he said.

The last major exchange between Russia and Ukraine took place on January 3, when Kyiv handed over 248 Russian soldiers to Moscow in exchange for 230 Ukrainian soldiers.

According to Kartapólov, 192 people were to participate in the swap on Wednesday, but the plan was aborted after the downing of the Russian plane. EFE

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