Pentagon Investigates If American Weapons Were Used to Destroy Russian Il-76

U.S. authorities are investigating reports regarding the use of American weapons to destroy the Russian Il-76 military aircraft. This was stated by Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh.

“This is a question that we are looking into, but I don’t have any further information. We have seen those reports regarding accountability, we are verifying them, but I don’t have any other data at this time,” Singh clarified during a press briefing.

On January 24, an Il-76 military transport aircraft was downed in the Belgorod region. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the aircraft carried 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war, 6 crew members, and 3 accompanying persons, all of whom were killed. The Russian Investigative Committee reported that the Il-76 was hit from Ukrainian territory by a surface-to-air missile. Viktor Bondarev, a member of the Federation Council of Russia, claims that the attack was carried out using American-made Patriot surface-to-air missiles or German Iris-T SLM missiles.