The US State Department and the White House expressed condolences over the terrorist attack on the Russian Il-76 military aircraft, which was shot down by the Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU). Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov announced this on February 8.
He said that he had held “serious meetings” on the topic of the Il-76, which was shot down by a missile from the American Patriot anti-aircraft missile system (SAM). The request for meetings was made immediately after the news that the plane was destroyed by the Ukrainian Armed Forces with the help of Western weapons. Antonov pointed out the need to understand what the United States has to do with this “barbaric terrorist act.”
“I’ll tell you frankly that it didn’t work out right away. Nevertheless, the day before yesterday we managed to hold serious meetings with senior officials of the National Security Council, as well as the US Foreign Ministry,” the diplomat told reporters.
Antonov said that Washington also showed interest in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s proposal to organize an investigation into the terrorist attack, noting that it could be “not about bilateral work, but, say, through the United Nations (UN).” At the same time, the American side believes that “we still need to figure out what kind of missile it is, how it got to the border with the Russian Federation.” Although all contracts clearly state the importance of obtaining the consent of the producing or exporting party for the re-export of a particular product, the ambassador pointed out.
“Thus, the Americans are lying that they do not know how this system got to the border with the Russian Federation, simply because any movement of American weapons must be controlled by the State Department and the Ministry of Defense. Taking into account the professional skill that is necessary to maintain the Patriot air defense system, I will use the wonderful words of Western propagandists and say: with a high degree of probability we can say that the crew of the air defense system could have included US military personnel,” Antonov emphasized.
Adding that representatives of official Washington, “of course, rejected this.”
Earlier on February 8, The New York Times reported that US officials, on condition of anonymity, acknowledge as reliable reports that a Russian Il-76 plane carrying Ukrainian prisoners was shot down by an American Patriot missile, but they are not talking about this publicly.
The crash of an Il-76 plane occurred in the Belgorod region on the morning of January 24. On board the plane were six crew members, 65 Ukrainian prisoners for exchange and three Russian military personnel accompanying them. Everyone died. Later, the Investigative Committee reported that on fragments of the bodies of prisoners who died in the crash, they found tattoos characteristic of the Ukrainian military, including “Azov” (a terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation).
On January 31, the Russian President called for an international investigation into the plane crash in the Belgorod region. On February 1, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation reported that the Il-76 was shot down by a MIM-104A missile from the American Patriot air defense system, which was in service with the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
On February 6, Russia's permanent representative to the UN Security Council, Vasily Nebenzya, announced that Moscow has irrefutable evidence that an Il-76 plane carrying Ukrainian prisoners was shot down by an American Patriot air defense system, which makes the United States an accomplice in the terrorist attack. He also noted that the Russian investigation into the plane crash has moved forward.
Before this, on February 2, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that no foreign country had yet responded to the Russian Federation’s call for an international investigation into the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ attack on a Russian plane carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war.
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