Moscow and Kiev traded accusations Thursday at the UN Security Council after the crash of a Russian military plane near the Ukraine border a day earlier.

On Wednesday, the Russian Defense Ministry said an Il-76 military transport airplane carrying 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war set to be exchanged was shot down in the Belgorod region. All the prisoners of war, together with six crew members and three accompanying persons on board the aircraft, were killed. The ministry accused the Ukrainian forces of downing the airplane after an exchange of prisoners of war had been arranged.

Later, the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said its staff was not aware that Russia's Il-76 airplane was transporting Ukrainian prisoners of war for a prisoner swap. However, the Ukrainian news portal Strana.ua reported the ministry had confirmed that a prisoner exchange between the parties was scheduled for Wednesday.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reiterated that Russia had informed Ukraine that an Il-76 plane was going to transport captured Ukrainian soldiers for a swap.

Moscow, Kiev trade accusations

The Kiev regime goes against clear facts and does not take responsibility for downing the Il-76 plane, the Russian Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Dmitry Polyanskiy said on Thursday.

"Everything that we have seen so far was a very primitive and cowardly attempt by the representatives of the Kiev authorities to go against the obvious facts and not take responsibility for this and by doing this, they have got carried away in their lies and are now digging a greater and greater hole for themselves," Polyanskiy told the UN Security Council members.

Russia is also disappointed that representatives of international organizations pursue "double standards" and refuse to comment on the downing of the Il-76 airplane, he added.

Polyanskiy pointed out that if confirmed that Western countries supplied weapons used in the downing of the IL-76 Russian military transport airplane, they will be implicated as direct participants in this heinous act.

"If this becomes confirmed, then these Western countries which supplied this weaponry, will become direct participants in this crime," he said.

The Russian diplomat indicated that all available information about Ukraine downing the Russian IL-76 military transport airplane carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war shows an act of premeditated assault.

He considered that "all of the information that we have today shows that we are dealing with a premeditated assault through crime."

"The leadership of Ukraine knew the route very well, knew about the way the soldiers were going to be transported to the place of exchange," Polyanskiy noted.

It was not the first prisoner exchange between the two sides, but this time Kiev "for some inexplicable reason decided to sabotage this procedure and do it in the most barbaric way possible," he said, accusing Ukraine of sacrificing its troops "to Western geopolitical interests."

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Ukraine pushed back on the accusations that it was behind a plot to take down the plane.

"Ukraine was not informed about the number of vehicles, roads and means of transportation of the captives. This alone may constitute intentional actions by Russia to endanger the lives and safety of the prisoners," Deputy Ambassador Khrystyna Hayovyshyn said.

The Russian prisoners in the exchange had been transferred to the agreed-upon location, she said.

"The Russian side was supposed to ensure the same level of safety of Ukrainian captured servicemen," she said.

If it's confirmed that Ukrainian prisoners of war were indeed aboard the plane, it would be another violation of humanitarian law by Russia and "the first case of Russia using a human shield in the air to cover the transportation of missiles for their further use against peaceful Ukrainian cities," Hayovyshyn charged.

The Russian Investigative Committee said on Thursday it had initiated a criminal case over the crash of the Il-76 military aircraft in Russia’s Belgorod Region.

Earlier in the day, Ukrainian media reported that the Ukrainian Security Service had launched a criminal investigation over the incident.

China calls for direct engagement, negotiations between Russia, Ukraine

During the UNSC meeting, Chinese deputy envoy Dai Bing said his country calls on Russia and Ukraine to strengthen direct engagement and gradually resume negotiations, and accumulate consensus.

Dai also stressed that the international community must demonstrate greater urgency and strengthen diplomatic mediation.

On her part, UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, Rosemary DiCarlo, said the United Nations welcomes the recent exchange of prisoners of war between Ukraine and Russia and urges both states to persist in pursuing such exchanges.

"We welcome the latest exchange of prisoners of war between Ukraine and the Russian Federation...We urge the parties to continue pursuing exchanges of prisoners of war," DiCarlo said during the meeting.

Earlier, Bloomberg reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin has put forward signals to the United States through back channels that Moscow is open to discussing ending the war in Ukraine, including post-war arrangments for the neighboring country.

US departments contradict each other's statements over Russian plane crash

In a related context, US State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel claimed on Thursday that the United States was not involved in the crash of an Il-76 plane in Russia’s Belgorod region with Ukrainian prisoners of war on board.

"I can certainly say that the United States was not involved in this [plane crash] in any way," Patel said during a press briefing.

But later on Thursday, Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said that the US is looking into the potential involvement of US-made weapons in the downing of the plane.

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