“The plane was shot down, this has already been established for sure, by the American Patriot system. The examination has already established this,” he said.
Putin also called for an international investigation into the tragedy.
“Assess the available physical evidence that the plane was shot down by the Patriot system from a specific location... from territory controlled by the Ukrainian authorities,” he added.
On January 24, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported that Ukrainian troops hit a Russian Il-76 military transport plane with captured Ukrainian Armed Forces military personnel over the Belgorod region using an anti-aircraft missile system.
On board were six crew members, 65 military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine for the exchange and three Russian military personnel accompanying them. They all died.