MANHATTAN: Russian has called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council Wednesday afternoon after its military plane came down near the Russian city of Belgorod, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.
“We have asked for an urgent session of the UN Security Council at 3 pm New York time (01 am PST Thursday,” Lavrov said at a news conference at UN headquarters in New York.
“We very much hope that the French presidency (of the Security Council) will conscientiously fulfill its duties and schedule such a meeting as soon as possible,” Lavrov said.
He said the downing of the plane was a Ukrainian “criminal act,” adding: “We’re trying to find out the facts right now.”
His remarks came after the military plane, en route to Ukraine for a prisoner exchange, was shot down by that country’s armed forces in the region of Belgorod.
The crash killed all 65 Ukrainian servicemen onboard, as well as six crew members and three escorts.
The Russian Defense Ministry called the crash “a terrorist attack” organized to accuse Russia of killing Ukrainian servicemen and claimed Ukrainian authorities were “well aware of the planned transportation” with the purpose of further exchange
Ukraine did not immediately confirm or deny it, but its military intelligence said it had no information about who was on the plane when it went down.
Newspakistan.tv/APP/AFP
