Ukraine said it shot down a Russian military plane carrying missiles over the border region of Belgorod on Wednesday morning.

The Il-76 transport aircraft was filmed bursting into a fireball after crashing to the ground near the village of Yaboslovo, 29 miles from the Ukrainian border.

Ukrainian military sources claimed responsibility for downing the aircraft and told the Ukrainska Pravda newspaper that it was carrying S-300 missiles.

But the Russian defence ministry claimed 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war were on board and being taken to be exchanged for Russians.

It told the RIA Novosti state news agency that six crew members and three others were also on the plane, bringing the potential death toll to 74.

“At around 11am Moscow time (8am GMT), an Il-76 aircraft crashed in the Belgorod region during a routine flight,” it said. “On board were 65 captured Ukrainian army servicemen being transported to the Belgorod region for exchange, six crew members and three escorts.”

Vyacheslav Volodin, a leading MP in Russia’s lower house, said Ukraine had “shot down” the aircraft using Western-supplied missiles.

“They shot their own soldiers in the air. Their own,” he told the Duma. “Our pilots, who were carrying out a humanitarian mission, were shot down.”

Andrei Kartapolov, a retired general and former deputy defence minister, claimed the Il-76 had been shot down by three rockets fired using Patriot or Iris-T surface-to-air missile launchers.

In a video published by the prominent Shot Telegram channel, he added that prisoner exchanges with Ukraine would likely be paused in response to the incident.

Evgeniy Popov, another MP, said a second Il-76 carrying an additional 80 prisoners of war was following the plane and was forced into an emergency landing.

Ukraine’s defence ministry told Suspilne, the Ukrainian public broadcaster, that it could not immediately comment on the allegations because it was “still sorting out the information”.

Video footage and photographs taken of the incident showed a large plume of black smoke billowing into the air.

The prominent Baza Telegram channel said debris had been scattered over a radius of three miles.

Vyacheslav Gladkov, the Belgorod governor, confirmed there had been an “incident” in the Korochansky district on Wednesday morning.

He said the emergency services had been dispatched to the site. A missile alert had previously been issued for Belgorod at 11am local time.