A senior Russian lawmaker said on Thursday that the Main Directorate of Intelligence (GUR) of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine had been given a 15-minute warning before a Russian plane carrying Ukrainian prisoners entered the Belgorod region, where it was shot down by Ukraine a day earlier.

Andrey Kartapolov, the head of the lower house of parliament's defense committee and a retired general with close links to the Defense Ministry, said the GUR had confirmed at the time to the Russian side that it had received notice of the incoming plane. 

GUR said on Wednesday that it had not been told how Russia would bring the prisoners to the handover point and that Ukraine had not been asked to ensure airspace security around Belgorod, unlike previous swaps. 

Kartapolov's comments were published by his United Russia party.