MOSCOW, February 28. /TASS/. Russia's Investigative Committee is identifying all Ukrainian commanders who gave the order to shoot down the Il-76 plane carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war for exchange, the agency’s head, Alexander Bastrykin, told TASS in an interview.

"Investigation to identify individuals from among the Ukrainian military involved in this terrorist attack is ongoing," he said.

Bastrykin said that investigators and experts had already identified the type of weapons used to attack the plane. "They are MIM-104A anti-aircraft guided missiles of the US Patriot surface-to-air missile system," the top investigator said. He recalled that the missiles were launched from the village of Liptsy in Ukraine’s Kharkov Region. "Several hundred fragments of the victims' bodies were found at the crash site. The results of DNA tests allowed to make an unequivocal conclusion about the affiliation of the seized body fragments to the crew members, military police officers and 65 Ukrainian servicemen who died in the crash of the plane," the agency’s head added.

On January 24, the Ukrainian armed forces shot down a Russian Il-76 military transport plane over the territory of the Belgorod Region with 74 people on board, including 65 Ukrainian servicemen, all of whom were killed. The Russian Defense Ministry called the incident a terrorist attack, stressing that Kiev knew about the transport of prisoners for exchange and attacked the plane to accuse Moscow of eliminating the Ukrainian servicemen. The Investigative Committee is conducting a criminal investigation into the terrorist act.