Russia claims that dozens of POWs died in a plane crash, but Ukraine says there's no evidence to support this claim.

Ukrainian officials stated that Russia has not provided any verifiable proof to support its assertion that Ukrainian troops shot down a military transport plane carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war, which were to be exchanged for Russian POWs.

The Ukrainian agency responsible for prisoner exchanges announced on Friday that Russian officials had finally given them a list of the 65 Ukrainian citizens who Moscow claimed perished in the Wednesday plane crash in Belgorod region.

The Coordination Staff for the Treatment of Prisoners of War in Ukraine reported that the relatives of the named POWs were unable to identify their loved ones in the crash site photos provided by Russian authorities. According to the agency's update, Ukraine's military intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, stated that Kyiv had no verifiable information about who was on the plane.

On Wednesday, the Russian Defense Ministry stated that missiles launched from beyond the border caused the downing of a transport plane carrying POWs back to Ukraine. According to local authorities in Belgorod, which borders Ukraine, the crash resulted in the death of all 74 individuals on board, including six crew members and three Russian soldiers.

Budanov, head of Ukraine's POW agency, stated that there is no evidence to support the claim that 65 Ukrainian POWs were being transported on the IL-76 aircraft for a prisoner swap, as per Russian propaganda.

On Wednesday, a video was posted on social media by users in the Belgorod region, depicting a plane falling from the sky in a snowy, rural area and a massive fireball erupting at the point of impact.

On that day, Kyiv neither confirmed nor denied that its forces shot down a Russian military transport plane, and Russia's claim that the crash resulted in the death of Ukrainian POWs could not be independently verified. Earlier on Friday, Mykola Oleshchuk, Ukraine's air force commander, characterized Moscow's statement as "a rampant Russian propaganda."

Ukrainian officials earlier this week announced that a prisoner swap was scheduled for Wednesday but later confirmed that it had been canceled. They stated that Moscow did not request any specific stretch of airspace to be kept safe for a specific duration, as it has done in previous prisoner exchanges.

On Friday night, a spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Ukraine called on Russia to return the remains of any POWs who may have perished in the plane crash.

In a live interview with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Red Cross Media Relations Officer Oleksandr Vlasenko stated that Moscow declared it was ready to return the bodies of Ukrainian POWs "very little time" after the initial reports of the incident.

Each exchange of dead soldiers between Ukraine and Russia necessitates extensive preparation, according to Vlasenko.

An international investigation into the crash has been called for by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but Russia holds exclusive access to the crash site.

Putin vowed to release the results of the Moscow crash probe on Friday. In his initial public statement on the matter, he reiterated the Russian officials' previous assertions that the crash was planned for a prisoner exchange.

Putin stated at a meeting with students in St. Petersburg that he was unsure whether the attack on the plane was intentional or accidental, and whether it was a result of carelessness, given that the POWs were on board.

He did not provide any evidence to back up the claim that Kyiv was responsible, but stated that the flight recorders of the plane had been discovered.

Putin stated that all information will be gathered and made public.