Deputy spokesman for the US State Department, Vedant Patel, said there was still no new news regarding what exactly happened with the reported Russian military plane crash.
“We continue to work closely with colleagues in the Ukrainian government to dig up the facts,” Patel said on Thursday (25/1).
“This happened in Russia, so it is very difficult to explain what actually happened. As we know, Russia does not allow press freedom or independent reporting. So its claims about it are difficult to confirm. So we just continue to maintain close relations with the Ukrainian government to get the facts and confirm what happened,” he added.
Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other for the downing of a military transport plane that Moscow said was carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war and was shot down by Kyiv forces.
This incident was one of the heated events in the information war that characterized the conflict between the two countries.
Although investigators reportedly recovered the flight recorder a day after Wednesday's crash, there is little hope that the circumstances surrounding the crash can be clarified in a wartime situation where both sides frequently level accusations in an attempt to influence opinion inside and outside country.
The Il-76 crashed in flames in rural Russia, and authorities there said 74 people on board, including 65 prisoners of war, six crew members and three Russian soldiers, were killed.
Patel also spoke about the need for Congress to approve more funding for Ukraine. (ps/hour)