A Russian Ilyushin-76 military transport plane has crashed in the southern Belgorod region bordering Ukraine.
A Ukrainian prisoner swap was cancelled after a Russian plane carrying 65 captives and missiles crashed near the border.
The Russian defence ministry said the Ilyushin-76 was shot down by two Ukrainian anti-aircraft missiles on Wednesday morning, as it was flying from Moscow to Belgorod for a prisoner exchange.
The plane was also carrying S-300 missiles for Russia’s air defence systems, according to the Ukrainska Pravda website, which cited Ukraine’s general staff.
Andriy Yusov, the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, confirmed that a prisoner swap had been planned for that day, but said it was now off.
He told Radio Liberty: “I can state that the exchange planned for today is not going ahead.”
A video posted on social media showed the plane crashing in a fireball near Yablonovo village, 70km (44 miles) north-east of Belgorod.
Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of Belgorod region, said the plane landed in a field close to a residential area and that all the people on board, including six crew members and nine others, were killed.
Some Ukrainian media initially reported that the plane was brought down by Ukrainian forces, but later retracted those claims.
Ukraine’s general staff said it was looking into the situation and did not have reliable information.
The Ukrainian agency responsible for prisoners of war accused Russia of conducting “special information operations” to destabilise Ukraine.
In a subsequent statement, the Russian defence ministry said there was another plane in the air with 80 Ukrainian prisoners, but it changed its course after the incident.
Andrei Kartapolov, the head of Russia’s defence committee in parliament, said there would be no more prisoner exchanges.
He told Russian TV: “There can now be no talk of any other [prisoner] exchanges.”
Russia and Ukraine have exchanged prisoners several times since the war began.
The largest swap happened earlier this month, when Ukraine released 248 Russian captives and Russia freed 230 people in a deal brokered by the United Arab Emirates.
More than 8,000 Ukrainians, both military and civilian, are still held by Russia, while tens of thousands more are missing, according to Ukraine’s Coordination HQ on Treatment of PoWs.
Ukraine issued a nationwide air raid alert shortly after the plane crash.
Belgorod, which is about 25 miles (40km) from the Ukrainian border, has been hit by many air strikes and drone attacks since the war started.
In December, an air strike killed 25 people and injured 100 more in the city. Ukraine said it only targeted military facilities and blamed Russian air defences for the civilian casualties.
Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and the war is still ongoing after almost three years.
Last week, Russia said it captured a village near Bakhmut, a ruined city in eastern Ukraine. Ukraine has not verified this claim.
Russian air raids have also increased in the past few weeks. On Tuesday, 18 people died and 130 were wounded in missile attacks.
