DISINFO: The Il-76 plane was shot down by Germans
SUMMARY
Many theories have circulated as to who might have fired on this [IL-76] aircraft and why. The French perhaps? The British? The Americans? For once, Ukraine is comparatively on the outside, considering the chaotic reaction. But there are other suspects that haven't even been mentioned yet. What if they were Germans?
Which would then mean that German personnel are also travelling with the German Patriots. Which in turn means that there would be possible German access to the operation of these missiles.
Of course, you have to ask yourself what motive there could be. The first conceivable motive has probably already been refuted by the course of events so far. That would have been to use such an incident - Ukraine shooting down its own prisoners of war - to open a back door in order to exit elegantly from the Ukraine project, which is clearly on the verge of failure. After all, they are now just throwing extra money into a big hole without deriving any geopolitical benefit from it
RESPONSE
Pro-Kremlin disinformation claim taking advantage of the downing of IL-76 to invent a wild conspiracy narrative about a possible participation of German soldiers in the shoot-down. The claim is presented without any facts and is wildly speculative. It portrays Russia as victim of the Ukrainian armed forces with a possible collaboration with German soldiers in Ukraine.
The downing of the military aircraft Ilyushin-76 (IL-76) is still under investigation. What is known is that the IL-76 came down in the Korocha district of Russia’s Belgorod Oblast on 24 January 2024. The Russian Ministry of Defence quickly blamed Ukraine for the downing of the plane, claiming that Ukrainian prisoners of war were on board. However, neither the allegations of Ukrainian responsibility nor the claims of Ukrainian prisoners being on the aircraft have been substantiated by facts.
Soon after pro-Kremlin outlets claimed it was the work of France.
Various explanations for the downing of the aircraft are currently being considered, as the actual circumstances still require further investigation and clarification. Despite the uncertainty of the facts, Russian started speculating about a possible ,,German" participation in the shoot down.
At present, there are no indications or evidence that would even remotely support the thesis of German involvement in the downing. Rather, the thesis is in line with the established pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about ,,foreign/NATO mercenaries" that are regularly disseminated by Pro-Kremlin media.
See related cases such as: Significant number of foreign mercenaries fighting on Ukraine's side, Nazi mercenaries from Europe fighting in Ukraine, over 2,500 foreign mercenaries fighting in Ukraine; over 11,000 foreign mercenaries fought on Ukraine's side since February 2022.