Two Ukrainian military jets were shot down Wednesday in the
eastern part of the country, where pro-Russian rebels have fought against
government forces, a Ukrainian military office said.
The pilots ejected, the office
said. Information on their condition wasn't immediately available.
An air defense system shot down
the jets after the pilots completed a task near Dmytrivka, the military press
office said.
News of the jets' downing comes
six days after the deadly crash of the civilian passenger plane Malaysia
Airlines Flight 17 in eastern Ukraine.
The first of the bodies of the
298 victims of that crash are being flown to the Netherlands on Wednesday.
Ukrainian officials have
previously accused pro-Russia rebels of shooting down a number of military
aircraft.
In the week leading up to the
July 17 crash of MH17, Ukrainian officials said an Antonov An-26 transport
plane and a Sukhoi Su-25 fighter jet had been brought down.
The latest reported shootdown
highlights the ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk
regions between the rebels and Ukrainian security forces.
Claim and
counterclaim
Meanwhile, the finger-pointing
over who was responsible for bringing down the Boeing 777 continues.
U.S. officials say pro-Russian
rebels were responsible for shooting down that plane, but they now believe it's
likely the rebels didn't know it was a commercial airliner, U.S. intelligence
officials said Tuesday.
However, Vitaly Nayda, Ukraine's
director of informational security, told CNN's Kyung Lah that the person who
shot down the flight was "absolutely" a Russian. "A
Russian-trained, well-equipped, well-educated officer ... pushed that button
deliberately," he said.
Moscow has denied claims that it
pulled the trigger. And Russian Army Lt. Gen. Andrei Kartapolov suggested a
Ukrainian jet fighter may have shot the plane down. Ukraine's government
rejects that claim.
No comments:
Post a Comment