Russia's defense ministry says all 74 people on board the country's military plane that crashed in the western Russian region of Belgorod near the Ukrainian border on Wednesday died.

The ministry said the plane was shot down by a Ukrainian missile.

The ministry earlier said the Ilyushin-76 transport plane, which departed from an air force base in the Moscow outskirts was carrying 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war, six crew and three guards when it crashed.

The prisoners were being taken to the border region for a prisoner exchange, it said.

The ministry said Ukraine fired two anti-aircraft missiles from the eastern region of Kharkiv, neighboring the Belgorod region, destroying the plane.

Before the ministry's announcement, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin and head of the Duma Defense Committee Andrey Kartapolov said the plane was shot down by missiles.

Russia said the plane was downed by missiles provided to Ukraine by Western nations.

Russia's presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the Kremlin was looking into the situation.