Speculation over plane shot down near Belgorod
A Russian military transport plane has apparently been shot down in the Belgorod region near the Ukrainian border. According to Russia, in addition to the crew and three guards, 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war were also on board, en route to a prisoner exchange. The Ukrainian military intelligence, however, says it has no reliable information about the identity of the passengers.
Accident or trap?
La Repubblica conjectures:
“If Moscow is right, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have killed 65 of their own soldiers in an unforgivable mistake. But if the Ukrainians are right, the Russians set them a treacherous, deadly trap. ... Russia says that the transport of the prisoners took place along an agreed route, as it has done dozens of times before. ... Ukraine claims that it was 'not informed about the routes or manner of delivery of the prisoners'. ... In other words, Moscow allegedly used the plane with the prisoners as a decoy, and left it to the Ukrainian soldiers themselves to kill them 'with the aim of weakening international support for Kyiv'.”
Russian trick theory unlikely
Novaya Gazeta Europe does not believe in the theory that Moscow set a trap for Ukraine:
“Of course, one might imagine that this was a clever plan: expose the plane carrying the prisoners to an attack by Ukrainian air defence systems. However this is unlikely. The Patriot air defence systems are the main target of the Russian missiles, they constantly fire at them but have failed to hit a single system so far. If the Russian side knew that there was a Patriot system near Belgorod on the other side of the border, its main objective would not be to send the Ilyushin with the prisoners to its doom, but to destroy that Patriot system.”
The truth will come out
Wild speculation is not helpful, The Spectator insists:
“As is always the case in this war, multiple and contradictory explanations quickly emerged, often without any real evidence. Pro-Kyiv sources on social media claimed the plane had been shot down by the Russians' own air defences. ... As a variant of the above, there are claims that this is a 'false flag' attack intended to kill the PoWs and provide an excuse for Russia not to make further swaps. ... The only comfort is that while the dynamics of the modern age ensure that any such incident is instantly in the eye of a storm of claim, counterclaim, rumour and rebuttal, nothing stays secret for long. In due course, we'll know the truth.”