OREANDA-NEWS  The governor of the Orenburg region, Denis Pasler, said that the Il-76 aircraft, which, according to the Ministry of Defense, was shot down by the Armed forces of Ukraine (AFU) over the Belgorod region, pilots who served in the Orenburg military transport regiment were flying. In the Orenburg microdistrict Aviagorodok, a spontaneous memorial in memory of the dead appeared near the stele with the plane.

"Everyone died. The crew of the aircraft took the danger away from civilians. This is the act of real Heroes. They proved that human life is of great value to our military...Bright memory to the Heroes! I deeply sympathize with the families and friends of the victims. Orenburg region is grieving," Mr. Pasler wrote.

According to Orenday, the aircraft was part of the 117th Military Transport Aviation Regiment. The crew includes Captain Stanislav Bezzubkin, assistant captain Vladislav Chmirev, navigator Alexey Vysokin, engineer Andrey Piluyev, technician Sergey Zhitenev and radio operator Igor Sablinsky.

The Orenburg diocese announced that on January 25, divine services will be held in all churches of the diocese for those who died in the crash of IL-76. 117 The military transport aviation regiment was founded on July 1, 1938 in Ivanovo as the Sixth long-range bombing aviation Regiment. Since 1993, he has been stationed in the Orenburg region.

According to the Ministry of Defense, the IL-76 military transport aircraft was shot down this morning in the Belgorod region by two missiles of an anti-aircraft missile system located in the Kharkiv region. According to the ministry, all 65 prisoners on board, as well as three Russian escorts and six crew members were killed. It is indicated that prisoners of war were transported for exchange.