WASHINGTON, February 8. /TASS/. The US leadership displayed interest in examining Russian President Vladimir Putin’s proposal to hold an international investigation of the crash of the Il-76 plane that carried Ukrainian POWs, Russian Ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov told reporters in Washington.

The Russian envoy noted that, during the meetings in the US National Security Council and the Department of State earlier this week, Russian diplomats "drew their interlocutors’ attention" to Putin’s proposal to "organize an international investigation of the situation." Antonov underscored that US officials "displayed their interest in a more detailed examination of the Russian proposal on organization of this investigation."

"But they made it unambiguous: we are talking not about bilateral work, but about a work via the UN, for example," the Russian diplomat explained.

According to Antonov, US officials said "it is necessary to get to the bottom of what is this missile, how it got to the Russian border."

"All contracts clearly underscore the importance to obtain an agreement of the producer or the exporter for re-export of a certain product. Therefore, the Americans lie that they do not know how this system got to the Russian border, simply because all movements of US-made weapons must be supervised by the US Department of State and the Department of Defense," the Russian envoy underscored.