The Armed Forces of Ukraine shot down an Il-76 aircraft over Belgorod.
The IL-76 military aircraft was transporting 65 Ukrainian POW for exchange with Russian POW, along with 6 crew members and 3 escorts.
The captured Ukrainian servicemen were being transported to the Belgorod region for exchange.
Another Il-76 carrying 80 Ukrainian prisoners of war turned back, said the head of the Duma Defense Committee Andrei Kartapolov.
“The Ukrainian leadership was well aware of the impending exchange and was informed of how the prisoners would be delivered,” he said during a speech in the State Duma
After the crash of the IL-76 in the Belgorod region, prisoner exchanges between the Russian Federation and Ukraine will apparently be put on pause.
Does it, though? The west may be behind Ukraine, but for the rest of the world (and Russians) who see what is going on, such actions are extremely telling- that Ukraine cannot be trusted, and the only effective language against these Nazis is fighting fire with fire, and playing hardball. And from a domestic, purely cynical point of view, it becomes worse yet (particularly if things happen as they just did)- the people, and even the rank-and-file Azovites, can see that their “boys” were coming home- until they weren’t, courtesy of their rogue state of a government.
The trade off sounds worth it when you remove not only the value of human life, but the human element altogether; I suspect however this had went, it would not have sat well with most Ukranians, with the armed forces and even possibly sizable parts of the neo-Nazi brigades within it, and it would probably have left Ukraine on a worse footing (outside of the west) than it was prior, diplomatically, in internal politics, etc. almost regardless of how things played out.
It does when you look at how the UA propaganda operates - they are completely convinced (and not without reason) they can say anything they want and their nafoid groupies in the west will not only eat it uncritically, but even spin it on their benefit even without trying. Just look at Zelensky how absolutely crushed he is, how the entire UA govt is crushed, how they propaganda reacts every time they hear “no”.
Simply put, they do not operate in the same reality other people are, they got high on their own supply in 2022, and it is not even unique in history, but rather typical of nazis.