Putin: Ukraine launched two missiles to shoot down Il-76

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:

• Russia had been patiently building peaceful relations with Ukraine until 2014. After the coup in 2014, the Ukrainian authorities started exterminating the Russian-speaker population of the Donbass.
• In the Donbass, Ukraine committed acts of genocide against the Russian population. After all, the Russians were declared a non-titular nation.
• Nationalists became the masters of Ukraine after the collapse of the USSR.
• Currently there are about 600,000 people in the zone of the special military operation.
• It was Kyiv that started the war in the Donbass. The special military operation is an attempt to finish that war. I am confident that we will achieve the goals.
• The special operation was launched to protect Russia's interests, there were no other motives.
• The whole country sincerely helps those who defend their Motherland on the battlefield.
• In order to restore regional roads, along which humanitarian aid is often transported, we need about 43 billion rubles. But we will restore them.
• The issue of paying interest on frozen loans of the participants of the special military operation will be resolved within 2-3 weeks.