Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, points out the lack of evidence that the Il-76 military transport plane that crashed in Belgorod region of the Russian Federation on Wednesday was indeed transporting Ukrainian prisoners of war and declares the need for an international investigation of this plane crash.

On the air of the telethon on Thursday, when asked if it was known who was on the plane, he replied: "No, it's not known." "According to my information, it is impossible to say positively that there really were prisoners of war there. Again, according to the analysis of photos and videos that we saw, if there were bodies, if the Russians had at least some photos, videos that they could show that our prisoners of war were there, they would have already used it. We didn't see any signs that there were that many people on the plane . Experts should understand this and, in our opinion, it should be international experts," Lubinets said.

According to him, he is preparing an appeal in connection with the plane crash to the United Nations (UN) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). "Today I will send letters to the UN, to the ICRC, we are already preparing them," the ombudsman said.

Lubenets confirmed the information that an exchange of prisoners of war was indeed planned. "Representatives of our institution were present – we do this in order to immediately analyze the condition of our heroes who return from captivity," he said.

In the context of the plane crash, the Commissioner for Human Rights stressed that, according to the Geneva Convention, the entire responsibility for the life and health of prisoners of war is borne by the country that holds them captive. "Until the moment when prisoners of war return to their homeland through the exchange process, until that time this responsibility lies with the holding party. That is, in our case, even if this exchange was planned, the Russian Federation should have notified the ICRC representatives that they would transport prisoners of war and thus all legal work is being done to ensure decent transportation conditions, as well as safety during this logistical route," he said.

At the same time, Lubinets urged not to forget that "the war continues in our country, it was a military aircraft, and it is clear how the Armed Forces of Ukraine should act."

The Ombudsman suggested that the Russian Federation had planned an information campaign against Ukraine in advance, and drew parallels with the case in Olenivka, where Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed, and the occupiers tried to blame the Ukrainian side for this.