“Not informing the Ukrainians that their POWs were in it was a violation. If the Ukrainians had known that they would not have fired on the plane.”
Nice try, but there is NO WAY that the Russians would expose THEIR CREWS, THEIR SOLDIERS, and THEIR AIRCRAFT to this type of attack.
It’s OBVIOUS that some trigger-happy UKRAINIAN saw a nice, big, juicy, target and fired away...and I suspect that there will be hell to pay in Ukraine for that crap.
But they did knowingly expose their crews, etc.
Ukraine has already shot down aircraft in the region. A military transport is a big, fat, legitimate target.
The Russians can be careless with the lives of their own men if they like. But it is not OK to risk POWs, under the Geneva convention.
It was incumbent on the Russians, at minimum, to inform Ukraine that this plane was carrying POWs. More, knowing that this airfield was under Uke SAM coverage, they should have used other means to transport POWs. Also, since Belgorod has been under Uke fire for months, those POWs shouldnt have been there.