Russian lawmaker says Kyiv was given 15 minute warning about POW flight

A senior Russian lawmaker said on Thursday that Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence agency had been given a 15 minute warning before a Russian plane carrying Ukrainian prisoners entered the area where it was shot down by Ukraine a day earlier.

Andrei Kartapolov, the head of the lower house of parliament’s defense committee and a retired general with close links to the defense ministry, said the GUR had confirmed at the time to the Russian side that it had received notice of the incoming plane.

GUR said on Wednesday that it not been told of how Russia would bring the prisoners to the handover point and said Ukraine had not been asked to ensure airspace security around Belgorod unlike previous swaps.

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Ukraine's Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) was aware of the flight of the Ilyushin-76 transport plane carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war, but did not block the work of air defense on its route, the head of the State Duma’s Defense Committee Andrey Kartapolov told the media while commenting on the plane's crash in the Belgorod Region.

"The Ukrainian side had been officially notified. Fifteen minutes before the plane entered the zone, they were given full information, which they received and confirmed its receipt by the Main Intelligence Directorate," Kartapolov said. He stressed that after that "there should have followed the command 'Air, stop' for a certain sector."

"It was not issued. Instead, a command to open fire was given and the airplane with our crew and their soldiers was shot down," Kartapolov added.

The Kiev regime thus committed "another monstrous atrocity," he stressed. "The Ukrainian air defense system shot down an Ilyushin-76 airplane carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war, who were to be exchanged for our guys on that day. We need a very detailed, international probe into this issue in order to find out whose air defense missile system was used, who was at the control panel, who made the decision and who gave the command," Kartapolov said.