MOSCOW, January 25. /TASS/. Valery Fadeyev, the head of the Presidential Council on Civil Society and Human Rights, has appealed to international organizations to condemn the criminal actions of the Kiev regime after it shot down Russia's Il-76 military transport plane carrying Ukrainian POWs.

According to the HRC's Telegram channel, the appeal was sent to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk, OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Kairat Abdrakhmanov, the International Committee of the Red Cross, Amnesty International, the European Parliament and the European Council.

"We call on you and the international community to condemn the criminal actions of the Ukrainian authorities. We also demand you use your influence and all possible means to influence official Kiev in order to stop blatant human rights violations," the HRC quoted Fadeyev's letter as saying.

The HRC head noted that the Ukrainian military was "well aware" that the plane was carrying out a humanitarian mission and was being used to organize a prisoner exchange, while Ukraine "initially recognized the attack on the Russian plane." "These actions cannot be characterized as anything other than a terrorist act that goes against the commonly accepted rules of warfare," Fadeyev said.

On January 24 Ukrainian forces shot down a Russian Il-76 military transport aircraft that was carrying captured Ukrainian soldiers for exchange. All 74 people onboard, including 65 Ukrainians, were killed in the incident. The Russian Defense Ministry called the incident a terrorist act and said Kiev knew about the transportation of prisoners for an exchange that was to take place at the Kolotilovka checkpoint. The ministry said Ukraine attacked the plane so Kiev could blame Moscow for taking the lives of Ukrainian soldiers. According to the ministry, Ukrainian forces fired on the aircraft from a location near the settlement of Liptsy in the Kharkov Region, using an air defense system. Russian Air Force radars detected the launch of two Ukrainian missiles, which later struck the aircraft, the ministry said.