“A preliminary examination of the destructive elements found on the plane shows that the missile belongs to a Western-made air defense system,” a representative of the emergency services told RIA Novosti.
On January 24, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported that there were 65 prisoners of the Ukrainian Armed Forces on board the Il-76 that crashed in the Belgorod region.
As Russian President Vladimir Putin noted, the plane was hit in the Belgorod region by either the French air defense system or the American Patriot complex.
Chairman of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin instructed to prepare an appeal to the American Congress and the Bundestag in connection with the crash of an Il-76 plane in the Belgorod region.
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.