The French military has confirmed that a Russian Il-76 aircraft carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war was shot down by a US Patriot SAM system. This was reported by the Associated Press news agency citing a source.
According to the Associated Press, the French military has concluded that the Russian Il-76 aircraft carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war was shot down by a US Patriot system.
The publication notes that intelligence confirms that the SAM was in an undetected state, after which the radar was switched on “for a sufficient time to shoot down (the aircraft – ed.)”.
An unnamed Western official told the publication that the plane “most likely crashed due to a missile strike rather than a mechanical malfunction” and that the missile was almost certainly fired from Ukraine.
We shall remind you that earlier Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the Russian Il-76 aircraft carrying 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war, three officers of the Russian Army and six crew members was shot down by a US-made Patriot surface-to-air missile system of the AFU.