The Il-76 military plane which crashed on January 24 in Russia with, according to Moscow, Ukrainian prisoners on board, was shot down "with certainty" using "an American Patriot system", affirmed Wednesday Vladimir Putin.
“The plane was shot down, this has already been established with certainty, by an American Patriot system” fired from “the territory controlled by Ukrainian forces,” declared the Russian president during an event organized in Moscow.
“The fact that they shot down a plane where their soldiers were allows us to assume that they did it accidentally.
But it is still a crime,” he continued, believing that kyiv wanted to “provoke” Russia “to respond”.
A Russian Il-76 military transport plane crashed around 11 a.m. (Moscow time) in the Belgorod region, bordering Ukraine.
Images circulating on social networks show a device falling almost steeply, before a large explosion, accompanied by flames and black smoke.
There were no survivors.
VIDEO.
War in Ukraine: Russian military plane crashes with 65 Ukrainian prisoners on board
The day after the crash, Russia blamed Ukraine, denouncing “a completely monstrous act”, according to Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov.
The Kremlin assures that the Ukrainian army shot down the plane carrying 74 people, including, according to Moscow, 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war who were going to be exchanged.
“Ukrainian army intelligence knew that we were carrying 65 (
Ukrainian
) servicemen on board.
They shot him, by mistake or on purpose, but they did it,” assured Vladimir Putin.
“We demand and insist that there be an international investigation,” added the Russian president on Wednesday.
But “there are no international organizations willing to do it,” he assured.
Also read Death of Yevgeny Prigojine: from putsch to crash, story of two months of disgrace
At this stage, Russian authorities have not provided evidence establishing with certainty that Ukrainian prisoners of war were there and that kyiv knew it, as Moscow claims.
Ukraine, for its part, has not directly commented on its potential involvement in the incident and has expressed doubts about the presence of its soldiers on board.
The authorities in kyiv, however, confirmed that an exchange of prisoners was planned on the day of the crash, and ultimately did not take place.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for an international investigation, and tasked several state agencies to conduct their own investigations into the crash.
Prisoner exchanges will continue
Earlier on Wednesday, Moscow and kyiv announced that they had exchanged around 200 prisoners of war from each side, despite tensions.
“We will not stop trade.
We have our own men to bring back,” explained the Russian president.
Since the start of its offensive against Ukraine, Russia has experienced several air disasters involving army aircraft.
In October 2022, a Su-34 fighter bomber crashed into a building in the city of Yeysk, on the Russian coast of the Sea of Azov, killing 15 people.
The plane carrying the leader of the Wagner armed group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, crashed in August 2023 during a flight between Moscow and St. Petersburg, killing him and his main lieutenants a few weeks after an aborted mutiny.
Russian authorities then denied any involvement and estimated that the plane may have crashed because its passengers detonated a grenade on board.