The United States admitted that an Il-76 near Belgorod was shot down by an American missile. Previously, Putin and investigators spoke about the same thing

Unnamed American officials admitted that the Russian Il-76 plane carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war, which crashed near Belgorod on January 24, was indeed shot down by a US-made Patriot anti-aircraft missile system. This is reported by The New York Times (NYT).

At the same time, they indicate that the Ukrainian Armed Forces probably did not know that the plane was transporting their captured colleagues.

The US confirmed that the Russian side’s conclusions about the cause “were true”

U.S. officials will not publicly say the cause of the plane crash, but those who spoke to the newspaper privately on condition of anonymity said that “reports of the use of a Patriot missile were true.” writes NYT.

It is also clarified that the complex from which the Il-76 was shot down was transferred to Ukraine by a European partner (the specific country is not named).

The newspaper's interlocutors added that the Ukrainian military could act on the basis of erroneous intelligence information. This board could previously have been used to transport weapons, US sources say. Based on this, the Ukrainian Armed Forces could decide that that flight was again transporting shells, move the complex closer to the border and fire a missile when the plane was within range.

In addition, the newspaper's observers pointed to the lack of criticism of Kyiv from Washington for using the Patriot system to destroy Russian aircraft. Instead, they said these are the kinds of innovations Ukraine “will have to adopt” to win the conflict. They recalled that the United States approves the use of Western weapons only within the territory of Ukraine, which they recognize as legitimate, in order to prevent the escalation of the conflict.

“Ukraine’s use of a Patriot missile to shoot down an airplane is an example of how such combat tactics can be dangerous,” the NYT notes.

Putin and Russian investigators announced the use of Patriot

Previously investigative examination installedthat the Il-76 was shot down by a MIM-104A anti-aircraft guided missile from the US-made Patriot anti-aircraft missile system (SAM), developed by Raytheon and Hughes corporations. According to the investigation, on January 24, Ukrainian soldiers from the Kharkov region attacked a Russian plane with two missiles.

116 fragments of cases and mechanisms of two missiles with inscriptions and markings in English were seized from the scene. In swabs from them, experts found traces of hexogen with impurities of up to ten percent octogen, characteristic of foreign-made explosives. A fragment of an American missile that shot down an Il-76 near Belgorod was caught on video.

Russian President Vladimir Putin also stated the same. He explained that he does not know and does not understand why the Ukrainian Armed Forces shot down a plane in which there were 65 of their own servicemen intended for exchange. He admitted that Kyiv could have hit the Il-76 by accident.

On January 24, an Il-76 military transport aircraft of the Russian Ministry of Defense crashed in the Belgorod region near the village of Yablonovo in the north of the Korochansky district, located more than 70 kilometers from the border with Ukraine. The crew managed to move the heavy transport vehicle away from residential buildings.