VIENNA, January 25. /TASS/. Moscow will seek a clear reaction from the OSCE to the recent downing of a Russian military transport aircraft carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war, Russia's representative at the group, Alexander Lukashevich, told reporters.
"We will persist in seeking an articulate reaction <...> and demand an answer," the diplomat said, when asked about the OSCE reaction to Ukraine's attack on the Il-76 aircraft.
"We also reminded them about the tragedy at the market in Donetsk on January 21. We did all this in advance, telling the Maltese that we expected an appropriate response. We this to them and the OSCE secretary general. They react, as if on cue, only to their insane fabrications about our brutal shelling," Lukashevich said.
The Foreign Ministry of Malta, the country that now holds the rotating OSCE presidency, told TASS earlier that its government is aware of the Russian plane incident, but won’t comment as it awaits more details. Later, the organization's spokesman, David Dadge, told reporters in Vienna that the crash of the aircraft in Russia’s Belgorod Region is a tragedy.
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.