MOSCOW, June 25. /TASS/. The Russian Investigative Committee’s investigation has collected evidence showing that Ukrainian forces downed the Il-76 aircraft carrying Ukrainian POWs over Belgorod using a US-supplied Patriot missile system, Investigative Committee Spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko told reporters.

"A criminal probe into the terrorist attack on the Russian Il-76 plane in the Belgorod Region has collected evidence confirming the involvement of Ukrainian forces in that crime," she said. While Ukraine had agreed for an exchange of POWs to take place on the border between the Belgorod and Sumy regions on January 24, the leaderships of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s Main Intelligence Directorate [GUR] and Ukrainian forces issued an order to destroy the aircraft carrying 65 Ukrainian nationals," she added. According to Petrenko, fragments of Patriot missile casings and mechanisms were found at the site of the crash and in one of the bodies.

"The results of complex probes show that the fragments found [at the scene of the crash] were from two US-provided Patriot guided missile systems," she continued.

Also, Petrenko said, the Investigative Committee has obtained data on exactly which Ukrainian units are equipped with Patriots. Russia’s investigative authority continues working jointly with the Defense Ministry Work to identify specific officials who were behind that attack in order to criminally prosecute them, she concluded.

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 and purposely attacked the plane in order to accuse Moscow of destroying Ukrainian military personnel.