Rebels shoot down Ukrainian military plane, 49 killed
- 10 years ago
ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION)
A webcam video from a real-time camera installed by the road leading to the airport in Luhansk in eastern Ukraine showed what is said to be an explosion from the crash of a Ukrainian military transport aircraft Il-76 shot down by pro-Russian separatists on Saturday (June 14), killing all 49 military personnel on board.
The toll is the highest suffered by government forces in a single incident since they launched a military operation to halt the rebellion in east Ukraine against the country's pro-European leaders in Kiev and to try to prevent the country splitting up.
The Defence Ministry said in a statement the Il-76 plane was shot down in a "cynical" attack by rebels using an anti-aircraft weapon and a heavy-calibre machine gun.
The Prosecutor General's office said nine crew and 40 paratroopers had been killed and that the plane was hit by an anti-aircraft missile at 1:10 a.m. (2210 GMT on Friday).
The Luhansk region is a
A webcam video from a real-time camera installed by the road leading to the airport in Luhansk in eastern Ukraine showed what is said to be an explosion from the crash of a Ukrainian military transport aircraft Il-76 shot down by pro-Russian separatists on Saturday (June 14), killing all 49 military personnel on board.
The toll is the highest suffered by government forces in a single incident since they launched a military operation to halt the rebellion in east Ukraine against the country's pro-European leaders in Kiev and to try to prevent the country splitting up.
The Defence Ministry said in a statement the Il-76 plane was shot down in a "cynical" attack by rebels using an anti-aircraft weapon and a heavy-calibre machine gun.
The Prosecutor General's office said nine crew and 40 paratroopers had been killed and that the plane was hit by an anti-aircraft missile at 1:10 a.m. (2210 GMT on Friday).
The Luhansk region is a