US working with Ukraine to establish facts on Russian plane crash in Belgorod

WASHINGTON

The US is working with Ukraine to establish the facts surrounding Wednesday's crash of a plane in Russia's Belgorod region that was transporting Ukrainian war prisoners for a swap, the State Department said.

"We're continuing to work closely with our counterparts in the Ukrainian government to discern facts," deputy spokesman Vedant Patel told a press briefing on Thursday.

He recalled that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for an international investigation into the crash.

"We're just continuing to stay in close touch with the Ukrainian government to establish facts and ascertain what exactly happened," he added.

Patel stressed that the crash occurred in Russia and "that makes it difficult to independently verify some of these things."

Russia has claimed the military transport plane was targeted by a missile fired from Ukraine. “The initial results of investigative actions, including preliminary data from the inspection of the scene of the incident, allow us to conclude that the aircraft was attacked by an anti-aircraft missile from the territory of Ukraine,” the Investigative Committee said in a statement.

Ukraine's Defense Intelligence claimed the incident could be a “planned and deliberate” action by Moscow to “destabilize” the situation. It said it currently does not have “reliable and comprehensive information” about who and how many people were onboard.