Russian plane carrying captured Ukrainian soldiers downed; Vladimir Putin’s govt calls for emergency UN meeting

United Nations, January 25

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said that Russia has called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council after the downing of a Russian plane carrying captured Ukrainian soldiers.

At a press conference at the UN headquarters in New York, Lavrov said Moscow requested a meeting for 3 pm on Wednesday. But obviously, the meeting has not been scheduled accordingly, Xinhua news agency reported.

Lavrov said a Russian IL-76 transport aircraft was downed with 65 captured Ukrainian military servicemen on board together with three Russian officers and six crew members. All people on board the plane died as a result of what he said was a terrorist attack by Ukraine.

Lavrov said an air defence missile launched by Ukraine from the Kharkiv region downed the plane in the Belgorod region. The IL-76 was carrying the 65 captured Ukrainian soldiers from Moscow to Belgorod for a prisoner-of-war swap that had been agreed on between Moscow and Kiev.