Ukrainian Pilot Gives Main Narratives For Russian IL-76 Crash Roots

And analyses of the evidence video.

A Russian Il-76 cargo plane crashed in the Belgorod region. The Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation stated that the plane on which the Ukrainian prisoners of war were allegedly transported was shot down by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Ukraine does not confirm this information.

Charter97.org asked Ukrainian pilot and military expert Oleksiy Melnyk to analyze publicly available videos and photos from the crash site:

– In my opinion, there is a reliable video of the plane crash. It is possible to draw unambiguous conclusions based on this video confirmation: the aircraft was shot down in the air. There is a video recording of the rocket explosion and signs that the plane lost control and fell to the ground. Some parts fell off during the fall, presumably an engine.

This is almost 100% confirmation that the aircraft structure was destroyed in the air as a result of a missile impact.

There is also the fact of a fire at the crash site. Probably, very narrow specialists can estimate the amount of fuel that could be on board, which led to its ignition. These are obvious facts and conclusions.

Let's go further. You need to be very careful with everything that the Russian side shows a close-up from the scene. The scene was cordoned off by the Russian military. In this case, only those shots that fit into the legend built by the official leadership of Russia get into public access. Even if we see some part of the fuselage with traces of damage or the remains of human bodies, it is not the fact that this is the crashed IL-76.

I repeat, there is already an official Russian legend, which will, so to speak, be made from these "confirmations".

Let's recall the Malaysian Boeing of flight MH-17. How many fakes and attempts were there to take the investigation aside? There was an international investigation. It is clear that Russia needed to work hard to convince real independent experts of their version.

Here, the situation for Russia is simplified many times. No independent experts. And their experts will confirm any version.

Another example is the plane with Prigozhin. The same case. We should keep all this in mind when agreeing with some Russian version or trying to draw our own conclusions.

– Then what are the main versions you can highlight now?

– Let's start by excluding the version that is being put forward now. I categorically exclude the version that Ukraine could have deliberately launched a missile at the plane with Ukrainian prisoners of war. If there had been information that this plane was carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war, I am 100% sure that this operation would have been cancelled even at the very last moment.

However, it should be noted that if we consider the version of the Ukrainian missile, did the Ukrainian air defence have this information? The information could be lost. Problems of coordination and interaction, unfortunately, exist not only for our enemy.

I emphasize that Ukraine could not deliberately destroy the plane with Ukrainian prisoners of war. We need to focus on this because Russia makes it the main version. It is a completely untenable version.

I will add that Russia may not have prepared this attack on purpose. Most likely, they took advantage of what happened, and now they are trying to get the most out of it.

Could it have been a Russian missile? Easily. There is evidence that at about the same time, a missile alarm sounded in Belgorod. Russian air defence actively worked there. There is a high probability that the Russian air defence could fire a missile either mistakenly at this target or at another target, and the missile can capture another target itself. Especially as big as a cargo plane, even if it was launched, for example, on some drone or Ukrainian missile.

Similar cases have also happened repeatedly. The likelihood that the IL-76 was shot down by a Russian missile is high. Will we get an answer to this question? There will be no answer most likely.

If independent experts worked on the spot, the S-300 missile, which could hit a target at this range from Russian territory, could be easily distinguished from other missiles.

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