Ukraine’s Military Intellience Directorate (GUR) is busy these days spinning out one yarn after another, regarding Kiev’s shooting down, over Belgorod, of the Russian cargo transport plane on Jan. 24, plunging 65 Ukrainian POWs to a fiery death.
After allegations that the plane bore military supplies, not Ukrainian POWs, GUR spokesman Andrii Yusov told Radio Liberty yesterday a new variation—the Russian side may have used Ukrainian prisoners of war as human shields for transporting ammunition and weaponry for missile systems. He declared: “Onboard could have been both missiles for S-300s, and missiles and people at the same time. We are talking about a large military aircraft. Only one-third of it was loaded, according to their statements.”
Yusov also suggested that Russia could have intentionally downed the aircraft itself. For example, Russian air defense forces might have identified a Ukrainian reconnaissance UAV as a target, but the fired missiles or the anti-aircraft missile system crew made a mistake and accidentally shot down their aircraft. Or, as he put it: “As of now, we can state that this is effectively a combat zone. During this time and on this day, there was active use of unmanned aerial vehicles on both sides. Specifically, this includes Ukraine’s deployment of reconnaissance UAVs, which, in turn, could have been targeted by air defence and anti-missile systems of the aggressor... It is crucial to emphasize once again that we are currently talking about a military aircraft in which there should not have been any prisoners at all.”
