Two missiles were launched from Ukraine-controlled territory at the Russian Ilyushin Il-76 aircraft, Russian President Vladimir Putin during a meeting with students.
"Two missile launches were recorded from territory controlled by Kyiv. (…) It was almost impossible to react,” he said.
Ukraine fired a missile from a US-made Patriot anti-aircraft missile system. It could also be a French missile, but this detail is yet to be established, he said.
Putin rejected the friendly fire version noting that for Russian air defense systems it iswastechnically impossible to bypass the "friend or foe” system.
The Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine (GUR) was informed about the presence of Ukrainian prisoners of war on board the Il-76 aircraft, Putin said concluding that the attack on the Russian military aircraft was a crime.
"I will ask the Investigative Committee to make public all circumstances of this crime as much as possible. So that people in Ukraine know what really happened,” the Russian leader said.
The Il-76 aircraft crashed on January 24. According to the Russian Defence Ministry, there were six crew members, 65 Ukrainian POWs and three accompanying persons on board the plane. The crash left no survivors.
Later, the Defence Ministry said that the aircraft was shot down from an anti-aircraft missile system, which was located in the Kharkiv region. The department did not specify what kind of the system was used to shoot down the plane.
More from Putin's speech at the meeting with students on January 26: