49 people on board, a spokesman said. It is likely one of the bloodiest single events in that nation's current period of turmoil.
The Ilyushin-76 military
transport plane went down while approaching an airport in the eastern
Ukrainian city of Luhansk, said military spokesman Vladislav Seleznyov
from the anti-terror operation unit.
In a statement, Ukraine's
defense ministry said the plane, which was transporting military
personnel, was shot down by insurgents using anti-aircraft machine guns.
Video posted to YouTube
claimed to show the plane being shot down. Small flashes can be seen
climbing skyward, followed by large flashes on the ground on the distant
horizon.
The plane was also carrying military machinery and supplies, the ministry said.
Officials originally had said the incident occurred late Friday but later updated the time.
Mariupol operation
Hours before the plane
went down, Ukraine's Kiev-based government -- which is trying to regain
control of the country's restive south and east -- announced that an
operation targeting pro-Russian separatists in the city of Mariupol had
been successful.
Anton Geraschenko,
adviser to acting Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, said more
than 30 "terrorists" had been detained and their base destroyed. Other
separatists are hiding in homes and basements for safety, he said.
Four Ukrainian soldiers were injured in the operation, he said.
Residents of the
southeastern port city may in the past have blocked Ukraine's security
forces, he said, but "today, not one resident of Mariupol protected
terrorists."
According to the
Interior Ministry, the yellow-and-blue Ukrainian flag is flying once
again over the main municipal building in Mariupol. The city has changed
hands several times in the course of hostilities over the past several
months.
Russian tanks
Meanwhile, three Russian tanks that Avakov claimed had crossed the border into Ukraine on Thursday, prompting a skirmish between Ukrainian and Russian forces, are now in the Donetsk region, Geraschenko said.
He said Ukrainian intelligence indicated that the tanks' drivers were Russian citizens.
The Russian Foreign Ministry told the BBC on Thursday that the claim its tanks had crossed the border was "another fake piece of information."
The United States also
believes tanks and heavy weapons have crossed into Ukraine from Russia
after moving from a deployment site in southwest Russia, a State
Department spokeswoman said Friday.
"We also have
information that Russia has accumulated multiple rocket launchers at
this same deployment site ... and these rocket launchers also recently
departed. Internet video has shown what we believe to be these same
rocket launchers traveling through Luhansk," said Marie Harf.
Geraschenko urged the tank drivers to leave their vehicles, warning they would soon be "destroyed from the air."
Video posted online appeared to show the tanks in the Donetsk area. CNN was not able independently to verify the footage.
Rival claims
According to Avakov, the
tanks crossed the border at a checkpoint controlled by separatists in
the Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine. Armored vehicles and artillery
were part of the columns, the minister said Thursday, citing Ukrainian
intelligence.
Two of the tanks split
off and were attacked by Ukrainian military forces, Avakov said. Part of
that column was destroyed, he said. CNN has not independently confirmed
the incidents.
Russia and Ukraine have
been engaged in a tense standoff since March, when Russia annexed Crimea
and massed troops along its border with Ukraine.
Western leaders have
accused Moscow of fomenting instability in eastern Ukraine. Russian
leaders say Ukraine has failed to move to implement a framework for
peace worked out in Geneva, Switzerland, in April. They say Ukrainian
leaders have carried out a campaign of violence against people living in
the largely pro-Russian east.
On Thursday, Ukrainian
President Petro Poroshenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin "held a
substantial and long phone conversation," the Ukrainian President's
media office said. The leaders discussed Poroshenko's peace plan to
resolve the situation in the east of Ukraine, it said.
Poroshenko has called on the rebels to lay down their arms and engage in talks.
Also Thursday, Vitaly
Churkin, Russia's U.N. ambassador, said he would introduce a resolution
on Ukraine at the U.N. Security Council in light of what he said was a
deteriorating situation in the country.
Churkin told reporters
the resolution, to be introduced behind closed doors, would focus on
stopping the violence in Ukraine and addressing political efforts
through the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Based on Russia's past vetoes of Western-backed Ukraine resolutions, its passage is thought unlikely.
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