VIENNA, February 15. /TASS/. Russia is ready to provide international experts with evidence proving Washington’s involvement in the downing of the Il-76 plane with Ukrainian captives on board, a high-ranking Russian diplomat told the plenary session of the OSCE Forum for Security Co-operation (FSC).

"The United States shares responsibility for this attack, which is essentially a terrorist act, with the regime of [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky. Washington is deliberately supplying [Zelensky] with weapons to kill Russian servicemen and civilians, including children, while [the Kiev government] does not spare even its own captured soldiers," said Konstantin Gavrilov, the head of Russia’s delegation to the Vienna talks on military security and arms control. "We are ready to receive a delegation of international experts, who will be provided with material evidence proving that it is the United States who is behind this atrocity."

According to the Russian diplomat, performance data of the Patriot system that was used to shoot down the Russian plane, and the training of those who operated it "give us grounds to suggest with a great degree of certainty that the crew of this particular air defense system included US citizens."

The plane was shot down over the Russian borderline Belgorod Region on January 24. It had 74 people onboard, including 65 Ukrainian POWs heading for an exchange. There were no survivors. The Russian Defense Ministry described the incident as a terrorist attack, stating that Kiev knew that Ukrainian citizens were being airlifted. Earlier, the Russian president said that a US Patriot air defense system was used to shoot down the plane. He also said that Moscow insisted on an international probe into the crash.