Russian presidential candidate and incumbent head of state Vladimir Putin has said at a meeting with his confidants that an Il-76 plane carrying Ukrainian prisoners was shot down over Belgorod Region by a US Patriot system.
“The plane was shot down, it has already been established for sure, by the US Patriot system. This has already been established by the expertise,” he said.
Putin also called for an international investigation into the tragedy.
“To assess the available physical evidence that the plane was shot down by a Patriot system from a specific place… from the territory controlled by the Ukrainian authorities,” he added.
On 24 January, the Russian Defence Ministry said that Ukrainian forces hit a Russian Il-76 military transport plane carrying captured AFU military personnel over the Belgorod region with an anti-aircraft missile system.
On board were six crew members, 65 AFU military personnel for exchange and three Russian servicemen accompanying them. All of them died.