Chief of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine Kyrylo Budanov has commented on the crash of the russian military transport aircraft IL-76 on the air of a national telethon.

He said that the aggressor state of russia, although it continues to accuse Ukraine of shooting down the plane, has not yet provided any evidence of Ukrainian prisoners of war on board.

“russia's position is clear - to blame Ukraine for everything, although there are many factors that are unclear for this position. First of all, they did not show the fields strewn with corpses and remnants, as they should have done to blame Ukraine as much as possible. But they do not have even these evidences,” Kyrylo Budanov noted.

He added that Ukraine is making every effort to release Ukrainian prisoners of war.

“The lives of our people, our citizens – whether the military or civilians – should not be endangered; they should not remain in those terrible conditions they are held in.

We will do everything in our power. I am certain that the exchange will take place very soon. As for that incident [the Il-76 crash], we will eventually find out what had happened there,” Kyrylo Budanov emphasized.