The White House has refused to comment on the information that the Russian Il-76 aircraft with Ukrainian prisoners of war on board was shot down with the help of a US Patriot missile system, US State Department deputy chief of press service Vedant Patel said at a briefing.
The US administration has redirected the question to Kyiv. Answering journalists’ questions, Vedant Patel said:
“As it relates to the specific incident that you’re referring to, I will let our partners in Ukraine speak to that.”
In addition, Patel tried to question the credibility of Russian officials’ statements about the disaster. According to the US diplomat, Moscow did not demonstrate “credible evidence” in this situation.
The Il-76 plane crashed on 24 January. In addition to six crew members, 65 captured soldiers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU) and three escorts were on board.
Last week Russia presented evidence that Ukraine used a Patriot missile system to shoot down a Russian plane with 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war on board.
