An-12: Ukrainian company’s aircraft was chosen because of sanctions against Russian and Belarusian carriers

Serbia’s president has said that the crash over the weekend of a Ukrainian cargo plane in northern Greece was a ‘tragic’ accident but it was not carrying dangerous materials.
Aleksandar Vucic was speaking at a press conference in the capital Belgrade about the Antonov An-12 cargo aircraft that took off from Serbia on Saturday evening and crashed in a field near Kavala, Greece, killing all eight Ukrainian crew members on board.

“Unfortunately, it was a tragic accident, but there were no dangerous materials [on the plane]. There were practice and lighting mines,” said Vucic.

Vucic said a Ukrainian company’s aircraft was chosen for transporting ammunition from Serbia to Bangladesh because of sanctions against Russian and Belarusian carriers. He said it was also chosen because only the Ukrainians have large four-engine aircraft capable of carrying big loads and weapons.