The Kremlin’s defense ministry said on Tuesday that a military cargo plane with eight crew members and seven passengers on board had crashed while taking off from an airfield for a scheduled flight. According to the ministry, one of the plane’s engines caught fire shortly after takeoff, which caused it to lose altitude and crash. Unverified footage circulating online showed the plane descending as it burned, with a helicopter circling above. The four-engine Il-76 is a heavy-lift transport aircraft that has been in service with the Soviet and Russian Air Force since the 1970s.
Moscow said the Ilyushin-76, flying from the Severny airfield in the town of Ivanovo north-east of the capital, crashed at around 13:00 local time. It came down in the Ivanovo region, roughly 200 kilometers (125 miles) east of Moscow, after one of its engines caught fire. No survivors were found, and the cause of the accident was being investigated, the ministry said.
Footage from the crash scene showed vast plumes of black smoke rising in the distance, along with a giant fireball and thick black smoke. Authorities quickly cordoned off the site. A resident wrote on social media that dozens of emergency vehicles were heading to the area.
According to Russia’s Ministry of Defense, the ill-fated plane was an Il-76 military transport aircraft with a capacity for 10 tons of cargo. RT reports that the aircraft was carrying weapons, including two MLRS systems and ammunition. It was headed to the air base in Ivanovo from Belgorod, located in Russia’s west, close to Ukraine’s border.
The ill-fated plane was also reportedly carrying 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war, who were being flown to the city of Belgorod ahead of a prisoner exchange. The two countries recently completed a full-scale prisoner swap, with Ukraine handing over 195 service members to Russia.
Russia has been involved in a long-running conflict with Ukraine, and as tensions have escalated, more planes have fallen from the sky. In the past year alone, there have been more than 30 crashes involving Russian military transport aircraft, including six significant disasters, per RT’s reporting.
The conflict between the two countries is entering its second year, with Kyiv accusing Moscow of deploying troops near the border and launching long-range attacks against Ukrainian targets. Meanwhile, Russia has claimed that Ukraine’s anti-aircraft missile system has destroyed dozens of its drones. The two sides have agreed to a ceasefire in the area, but fighting is continuing in some parts of Ukraine. Despite the truce, Ukrainian forces have been conducting daily operations against separatists. In response, Russia has carried out long-range strikes against rebel positions in eastern Ukraine. Meanwhile, a large number of Ukrainians have been killed by shelling and mortars fired from the territory controlled by Russia’s ally, Belarus.
