Footage showing the crash of a Russian An-22 military transport aircraft in Russia’s Ivanovo Oblast appeared online, published by the Russian Telegram channel Mash on Dec. 14.
The footage shows the aircraft breaking apart in midair. The Telegram channel Mash reported that the plane crashed into the Uvod Reservoir.
The An-22 aircraft went down on Dec. 9. Russia’s state propaganda agency TASS, citing emergency services, reported that there were seven crew members on board.
Mash said the entire crew was killed in the crash. Preliminary reports indicate the cause was a failure of the control actuators, which may have been poorly serviced before takeoff, the channel said.
The An-22 is the world’s largest turboprop aircraft, designed to transport heavy and oversized weapons.
Pavlo Narozhnyi, founder of the Reactive Mail charitable foundation and a military expert, said on Radio NV that the crash of the An-22 is evidence of the degradation of Russian aviation. He noted that the aircraft’s crew consisted of mid- and high-level command personnel.
“This is a military aircraft. It is essentially a mobile headquarters. The main blow is not the aircraft itself, because it is fairly old equipment. The key issue is the loss of those seven people [who were on board] — mid- and high-level command staff. That means ranks such as major, lieutenant colonel and colonel,” Narozhnyi said.
“There were signals from the United States of America, personally from the president [U.S. President Donald Trump] about Ukraine’s presidential elections,” Zelenskyy said in response to a question from LB.UA editor-in-chief Sonya Koshkina.
I’m“Whether these are signals only from the U.S. or from the Russian side — I don’t want to comment on that now. My main response is — I’m not [clinging to power].”
“I asked partners to help with the security situation if there are elections. And I told lawmakers to prepare options for how to implement this if the situation develops that way,” Zelenskyy said, adding that “they should develop options for holding elections in the near future.”
U.S. President Donald Trump, in a Politico interview published on Dec. 9, again called on Ukraine to hold presidential elections and did not rule out Zelenskyy winning them.
The U.S. president expressed the belief that “they are using the war to avoid elections, but I think the Ukrainian people must have a choice.”
On Dec. 10, in his evening address, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a statement on possible elections in the country during the war. According to the head of state, he discussed this issue in detail with representatives of the Ukrainian parliament.
“I will not allow any speculation against Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said.
Hmm“If partners, including our key partner in Washington, talk so much and so specifically about elections in Ukraine under the legal regime of martial law, we must give Ukrainian legal answers to every question and every doubt. It’s not easy, but we certainly don’t need pressure on this issue. I expect lawmakers to propose their vision. Security challenges depend on partners, primarily America; political and legal challenges must get answers from Ukraine, and they will.”
On Dec. 11, First Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Oleksandr Korniyenko said there are currently no legislative initiatives in parliament on holding elections during the war.
