Russia claims the plane was carrying 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war who were scheduled to be exchanged that day.
Budanov told families of POWs that Russia had asked prisoners' relatives to provide DNA to match the bodies of detainees allegedly killed on the ship, without providing any evidence of their remains, according to two people who attended the meeting.
Ukraine rejected this request, according to two relatives who attended the meeting and spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
“The mystery is inappropriate,” Budanov told the families, according to a relative — the mother of a prisoner of war. She added that the exchange was supposed to include more than 190 prisoners, which is consistent with Russian President Vladimir Putin's statement on Friday. The Russian Defense Ministry said that only 65 detainees were on board the plane.
In his first comment on the incident on Friday, Putin said that Ukraine shot down the plane with military personnel on board and that Russia would announce the results of its investigations “so that people in Ukraine know what happened.”
“I don’t know whether it was intentionally or by mistake, but it is clear that they did it,” Putin said, adding without evidence that the Ukrainians might have used an American or European air defense system. Western countries have generally prohibited Kiev from using its weapons to strike targets on Russian territory.
“We were transporting their citizens and military personnel, but no, they were struck there,” Putin said. “Our only regret is regarding our pilots.”
But more than 48 hours after the plane fell from the sky and charred a large area of land, Russia has provided little evidence for its claims. Ukrainian officials said that despite the Kremlin's rhetoric, Moscow is preventing an international investigation.
Although Russian political and military officials were quick to blame Ukraine, they did not explain how their military aircraft was left vulnerable to destruction in the air, a highly unusual event in a war in which each side possesses advanced anti-aircraft weapons. Ukraine has targeted Russian aircraft, but usually while they were on the ground.
Ukrainian officials insist they have seen no evidence that dozens of people were killed on board. The few short videos posted from the scene showed scattered debris but few visible body parts.
New footage released by Russian state media on Friday allegedly shows the passports of some Ukrainians who were allegedly on board the plane, but they were not shown at the crash site and parts of the video have been scrambled. In another part of the clip, a Russian official is seen closing a black body bag.
Andriy Yusov, spokesman for Ukrainian military intelligence, told Ukrainian media on Thursday that only five bodies had been transferred to the local morgue. This claim could not be independently verified. Russia said that in addition to the prisoners of war, there were six crew members and three other people on board.
Ukraine did not directly confirm that it shot down the plane, but it did deny its involvement and hinted at its responsibility, describing the plane as a military target regularly used to transport missiles that would be launched at Ukrainian cities.
Officials in Kiev insisted they did not know whether prisoners of war were on board. Instead, they called on Russia to provide more information to Kiev, international organizations and investigators.
But it is unclear how, when and whether Moscow will cooperate.
Russia has resisted international investigations in the past, including into the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny with a banned nerve agent, and the 2014 downing of a Malaysian Airlines airliner over eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board.
In that case, of flight MH-17, investigators determined that a Russian anti-aircraft weapon had been used, and a Dutch court convicted two former Russian security agents and a third defendant in absentia for murder. One of those convicted, Igor Girkin, remained at large in Russia until last year, when he was arrested and charged with incitement to extremism for criticizing the Russian military's performance on the battlefield in Ukraine. On Thursday, he was sentenced to four years in prison.
Russia's refusal to allow an international investigation or provide access to physical evidence could prevent a definitive answer about who or what was on board the Il-76 that went down on Wednesday.
At the meeting with Budanov, most people said they were sure of that [the Russian version of events] “It's fake news,” the POW's mother said.
“I think I was expecting more hysterical and panicked reactions,” the woman said. The intelligence spoke to us very frankly. Budanov started the conversation by saying, “Let's get to the point, let's start with questions,” and that was that.
“I was hysterical during the first day,” she added. “But I've calmed down now.”
The woman said that after one young woman asked when families could return their loved ones' body parts, a second military intelligence official responded: “Wait, we're hoping for the best, now we're not talking about the worst case.” Scenario.”
Dmytro Lobinets, Ukrainian parliamentary commissioner for human rights, told Ukrainian Radio on Friday that Kiev had not received an official list of names of prisoners who allegedly died on board the plane.
Margarita Simonyan, head of the Russian state propaganda channel RT, published a list of names and dates of birth that she said documented Ukrainian prisoners of war who were on the ship, but media quickly reported that some of those Simonyan mentioned appeared to be prisoners released in previous exchanges. .
The wife of one of the prisoners on the list, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for security reasons, said she did not believe her husband died in the incident. Simonyan's list was the first time she had heard any news about her husband since his capture more than a year ago.
“I don't think they were there,” the woman said. “I hope for the best.”
The International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement on Thursday that it had not received a list of the names of the prisoners who were scheduled to be exchanged.
“We understand the stress and anxiety this kind of news can cause for families who have been separated from their loved ones for months,” the statement read. He added: “We will continue to do our best to help clarify the fate of prisoners of war separated from their families on both sides and other missing persons.”
Yusov, spokesman for Ukrainian military intelligence, called on Russia to allow an international commission to investigate the crash site and examine the two black boxes recovered from the plane, but added that Moscow has so far refused to do so. Ukraine requested that the Red Cross and the United Nations be allowed to enter.
It could take months to get answers. A July 2022 explosion at a Ukrainian prisoner-of-war camp in occupied eastern Ukraine killed at least 51 detainees and prompted a months-long effort by Ukraine and international groups to investigate the matter.
Russia accused Ukraine of hitting this site with a missile provided by the United States, but the United Nations report – issued more than a year after the explosion – ruled this out. The Ukrainian government has repeatedly criticized the Red Cross for not sending a delegation to investigate the scene.
An emergency UN Security Council meeting on Thursday, held at Moscow's request, did not yield new information about the destruction of the plane or those on board. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov complained Friday that the global reaction was insufficient.
“There is no strong condemnation here from the West of this horrific terrorist act, the destruction of the plane that carried, first of all, our pilots and escorts, but also killed a very large number of Ukrainian prisoners of war,” Peskov said. . “What happened requires an appropriate assessment by the international community.”
Siobhan O'Grady, Camilla Hrabchuk and Anastasia Galushka in Kiev, and Marie Ilyushina and Natalia Abakumova in Riga, Latvia, contributed to this report.
