MOSCOW, February 1. /TASS/. The Russian State Duma has approved an appeal to the US Congress over the terror attack on a Russian Il-76 plane, urging to abandon support for the Kiev regime and help bring the direct perpetrators of the terrorist attack to justice.
The document was submitted for consideration by the State Duma Committee on International Affairs on the instructions of State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin. According to the document, lawmakers are addressing US congressmen "over the information confirmed by relevant authorities about Ukraine carrying out a terror attack" that brought down a Russian Il-76 plane transporting Ukrainian POWs for previously agreed upon swap.
"The plane was downed by Ukrainian armed formations from the area of the locality of Liptsy in the Kharkov Region using a US-made Patriot missile system," the document noted. The lawmakers stressed that the attack on the plane was "a premeditated and conscious murder," because the prisoner swap between Russia and Ukraine and the route of their delivery had been coordinated earlier. Due to this, the Russian State Duma is urging the US Congress to condemn the terrorist Kiev regime and cut ties with it.
As Volodin noted earlier, US congressmen "should be aware where US weapons, sent to Ukraine by President Biden, end up and how they are used." According to him, "with them, the Nazi Kiev regime is committing crimes against civilians" which must be stopped. In their address, the lawmakers also point to the ample evidence showing that "the substantial share of lethal Western weapons, supplied to the corrupt Kiev regime, as a result of criminal dealings, ends up in the hands of terrorists and radical extremists worldwide."
Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that it had been established that the Russian Il-76 plane with Ukrainian POWs onboard had been downed with a US-made Patriot missile system.
On January 24, the Ukrainian armed forces shot down a Russian Il-76 military transport plane over the borderline region of Belgorod that was carrying captured Ukrainian troops selected to be included in a prisoner exchange. There were 74 people on board, including 65 Ukrainian military personnel, all of whom were killed. The Russian Defense Ministry called what happened a terrorist act and stressed that Kiev knew about the transportation of prisoners for the exchange, which was to take place at the Kolotilovka checkpoint, and purposely attacked the plane in order to accuse Moscow of destroying Ukrainian military personnel.