The Russian jet was reportedly on its way to Syria and only in Turkish airspace for 17 seconds before it was shot down. “As soon as our pilot was safe, Russian bombers and artillery of the Syrian government forces carried out massive strikes in the indicated area for an extended period”, military official Igor Konashenkov told Russian news agencies. He also called the incident a “crime” and a “stab in the back”, and even went as far as calling Turkey an “accomplice of terrorists”.
Advertisement
Russia said Thursday it would be looking to cut economic ties with Turkey and scrap investment projects in a matter of days in the aftermath of the Turkish downing of a Russian warplane.
In the recording, one voice in English is heard saying: “You are approaching Turkish airspace, change your heading”.
Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet on Tuesday morning close to the Syrian border leading to a crisis between the two countries.
The statement added that Russian Ambassador to Ankara was also summoned to the Foreign Ministry to deliver Turkey’s unease about the attacks, which it termed are unacceptable. The Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the Turkish military was not aware that it was shooting down a Russian plane at the time.
Turkey says it warned the Russian Su-24 fighter jet 10 times before Turkish F-16s shot it down on Tuesday, but Russia maintains the jet was flying over Syria at the time.
Su24 navigator Konstantin Murakhtin said that no prior warning was given by Turkey before it attacked the jet. “I would like to stress that the plane was sacked at while it was violating Turkish air space”.
Mr Putin had yesterday said that Russian Federation had not received any apology from Turkish leaders. North Atlantic Treaty Organisation has confirmed the accuracy of information shared by Turkey about the violation.
Advertisement
To protect Russian aircraft in Syria, state-of-the-art S-400 air defense systems, whose killing range reaches 400 kilometers, were redeployed to the Khmeimim airbase.
