NYT sources say Patriot missile was used to down Il-76 near Belgorod

The New York Times reported on 8 February, citing "US officials", that the Ilyushin-76 cargo plane which was shot down over Russia's Belgorod Oblast last month was downed by a Patriot missile.

Source: European Pravda, with reference to the New York Times

Details: The NYT writes, citing its sources, that the Il-76 was shot down by a Patriot interceptor provided by "a European partner" of the United States.

US officials have not publicly commented on what downed the plane, although those who spoke to The New York Times on condition of anonymity said that "reports of the Patriot missile being used were accurate", the article says.

The NYT article is one of the first reports on the US assessment of the incident, which took place on 24 January over Russia’s Belgorod Oblast.

Russia’s Defence Ministry claimed at the time that the plane was transporting Ukrainian prisoners of war to Belgorod for a prisoner swap and that they had allegedly been killed.

Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence confirmed that the swap scheduled for 24 January did not take place, but they had no information about the Ukrainian prisoners on board the Il-76. In the previous swap, prisoners had been delivered by plane, but Ukraine had been made aware of that in advance.

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