WNAM Monitoring: President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that Ukraine had used a U.S.-supplied Patriot air defense system to shoot down a Russian Il-76 military transport plane last week in the Belgorod region that Moscow says killed all 74 people on board.
Putin also said that Russia, like Ukraine, wanted an international investigation into the incident.
Moscow accuses Kyiv of downing the Ilyushin Il-76 plane and of killing 74 people on board, including 65 captured Ukrainian soldiers it said were en route to be swapped for Russian prisoners of war.
Ukraine has neither confirmed nor denied that it downed the plane, and has demanded proof of who was on board.
“The plane was downed, and it’s been definitively established by an American Patriot system — the expert analysis has already established that,” said Putin.
“We insist that an international investigation be carried out. No international organizations are willing to do this,” he added, saying Russia was officially asking for such an investigation.
