Russia announced today that Syrian air defenses dropped an aircraft during its flight last night in western Syria carrying 15 soldiers, who initially blamed Israel for the incident because of its "hostile provocation" before talking about "tragic and tragic circumstances."
On Monday night, Syrian air defenses dropped a Russian reconnaissance plane that was flying over the sea more than 30 kilometers from the Syrian coast in retaliation for raids by four Israeli F-16 fighter jets. Syrian sites in the province of Latakia, according to the Russian Defense Ministry announced.
Moscow blamed Israel. The Ministry of Defense, as quoted by Russian news agencies, that "the Israeli pilots made the Russian plane cover them, and therefore placed in the range of fire Syrian air defense."
The incident killed 15 Russians were in service, according to the Russian army.
Later, Russian President Vladimir Putin said: "It seems that this incident is probably a series of tragic circumstances because the Israeli aircraft did not crash our plane," stressing that he had ratified the statement published by the Ministry of Defense earlier, and holds Israel responsible for the crash Because of its "hostile" raids.
During a telephone conversation, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shweigo warned his Israeli counterpart Avigdor Lieberman that his country might consider measures in response to the downfall of its aircraft.
"The full responsibility for the downing of the Russian plane and the death of its crew lies on the Israeli side," a Defense Ministry statement quoted Shweigo as saying.
After claiming responsibility for the incident and then summoning the Russian Foreign Ministry to its ambassador in Moscow, Israel denied using the Russian plane for cover in Syria.
"The Russian plane that was hit was not part of the operation," the Israeli army said in a statement. "When the Syrian army fired the rockets that hit the plane, the (Israeli) fighters returned to Israeli airspace."
The Israeli army said its aircraft attacked a Syrian military facility while handing over systems involved in the manufacture of precision weapons to the Lebanese Hezbollah.
The Russian military spokesman Igor Konachnikov said that Israel "did not inform" Moscow of the operation in Latakia, but did it before "less than a minute" of the attack, "and therefore, it was not possible to return the IL-20 to a safe area."