A Russian military transport plane that was carrying 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war crashed in the Russian border region of Belgorod earlier Wednesday, Russian officials said.
The Russian Ministry of Defense reportedly said the aircraft was carrying 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war ahead of a prisoner swap, and nine Russians. All the passengers on board died in the crash, Belgorod's governor said.
Russia blamed Ukraine for the crash, with several Russian lawmakers claiming the plane was shot down by three missiles of types that the West has supplied to Ukraine.
Ukraine's intelligence agency said that it currently did not have "reliable and comprehensive information about who exactly was on board the plane and how many of them."
It confirmed a prisoner exchange had been scheduled Wednesday but it did not take place. It also said that the "Ukrainian side was not informed about the need to ensure the safety of the airspace in the area of the city of Belgorod in a certain period of time, as was repeatedly done in the past."
Separately, Ukraine's armed forces said in a statement they would continue to "control the airspace to destroy the terrorist threat" of strikes crossing the border from Belgorod into Ukraine's Kharkiv region.
In other news, Turkish lawmakers finally approved Sweden's NATO membership bid on Tuesday, clearing a major obstacle for the country to enter the military alliance after 20 months of delays.