The Ukrainian prosecutor's office confirmed that 49 people were killed after separatists shot down an Ilyushin-76 aircraft near Luhansk, the Itar Tass news agency reported Saturday, according to dpa. It said that nine crew members and 40 soldiers on board were confirmed dead, and that an investigation was launched. The Ukraine Air Force's transport plane was approaching an airport in Luhansk in the east with "military personnel, machinery, equipment and supplies" when it came under "anti-aircraft and heavy machine gun fire," the military said online. Defence Ministry spokesman Vladislav Seleznyov said earlier that the figures were provisional. The area has seen weeks of clashes between security forces of the Kiev central government and the militias of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic. Representatives of the Luhansk People's Republic would neither confirm nor deny the downing of the plane, according to Itar Tass.
