The Russian Foreign Ministry announced yesterday the recall of the Israeli ambassador in Moscow following the fall of a Russian reconnaissance aircraft in Syria by mistake of the Syrian air defenses that were responding to Israeli strikes. Russia accused Israel of "indirect responsibility" for dropping the plane near the coast Syrian border on the Mediterranean, and threatened to retaliate for what it described as "hostile action".
Russian President Vladimir Putin said a "series of tragic circumstances" was behind the downing of the plane, ruling out any comparison with the drop of a Russian fighter by the Turkish army on the Syrian border in 2015.
The Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed that the Syrian anti-aircraft batteries accidentally shot down the plane, an Ilyushin-20, carrying 15 Russian soldiers, and blamed the ministry with full blame on Israel, because the incident occurred while Israeli planes were air strikes targets In Syria, Moscow was warned only a minute before the attack, which put the aircraft at risk and put it in the range of fire.
"We consider the actions of the Israeli army hostile, because of the irresponsible acts on the part of Israel," said Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashnikov.
The Israeli army declined to comment, and a spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry refused to comment on the ambassador's call, stressing that he had nothing to say on the subject.
Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shweigo spoke with Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman and informed him that Moscow holds Israel fully responsible for the downing of the plane and warned that Moscow might consider measures in response to the fall of its aircraft. Shweigo said: "The responsibility to drop the Russian plane and the death of its crew, is on the Israeli side."
The plane disappeared from the radar screens as it was preparing to land at the Hameimim air base in western Syria late last night, coinciding with the raid of four Israeli F-16 fighter jets on Syrian infrastructure in Lattakia province.
The Russian Defense Ministry said that the Israeli F-16 planes, which were carrying out air strikes, used the Russian plane as a cover to be able to approach its targets on the ground, without being targeted by Syrian anti-aircraft fire.
"Israeli pilots put the Russian aircraft in the range of Syrian anti-aircraft fire by hiding behind it, and as a result the S-200 (Syrian) missile system dropped the Ilyushin-20," Konashnikov said.
"The Israeli pilots could not have seen the Russian plane because it was on the way down from five kilometers up, but they deliberately provoked it," he said.
"This is absolutely incompatible with the spirit of Russian-Israeli partnership, and we reserve the right to take measures equal to the response," he said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters the Kremlin was deeply concerned about the incident, while Russian President Vladimir Putin offered condolences to the victims.
The Russian Defense Ministry initially accused the frigate "Overne" of firing rockets in the direction of Lattakia, but Paris rushed to exile, and Washington was quick to deny any relationship to the attack, without giving any details.
The fall of the plane came after the announcement of a Russian-Turkish agreement on the province of Idlib, northwest Syria, to establish a demilitarized zone under the control of forces of the two countries, on the line between the forces of the regime and the opposition factions in the region.
In a related context, a Syrian military source announced that the air defense "intercepted hostile missiles coming from the sea view towards the city of Latakia, and intercepted a number of them before reaching their goals.
The bombardment targeted ammunition depots located inside the Syrian-based Technical Industries Corporation on the eastern outskirts of Lattakia, without specifying whether the depots belonged to the regime's forces or to the Iranians.
The source said two people were killed without specifying whether they were military or not, in addition to wounding several others, including seven of the regime's forces.
This month, Israel admitted that it had "carried out 200 raids in Syria in the past 18 months, against targets mostly Iranian," in a rare assertion of military operations of this kind.
Russian Ministry of Defense: Israeli pilots used the aircraft as a cover in their raids and acted as "deliberate provocation".