“On January 24, from Western weapons, we are now finding out, President Putin spoke about this, whose production these weapons were, an Il-76 was shot down, which was transporting Ukrainian prisoners of war for exchange,” the minister said.
As President Vladimir Putin noted, the Russian Il-76 aircraft was hit in the Belgorod region by either the French air defense system or the American Patriot complex.
The missiles that shot down the plane with captured Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers were launched from Ukrainian territory, the president emphasized. The Investigative Committee claims that the anti-aircraft missile weapons were located in the village of Liptsy, Kharkov region.