The Kremlin is extremely concerned over the destruction of Russia's Il-20 military aircraft near the Syrian coast, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
"The Kremlin is extremely worried in connection with this incident. The full evaluation of the incident is available in the Defense Ministry’s statement," he noted.
The spokesman stressed that Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed his sincerest condolences to the colleagues, families, and friends of the crew of the aircraft.
At the same time, Peskov noted that even if the Kremlin is extremely concerned about the events that led to the plane's destruction, the incident with the aircraft will not affect implementation of the Russia-Turkey memorandum on Syria, adopted by the countries' leaders on September 17, Sputnik reported.
"This is an important, breakthrough agreement. It is crucial for the future of Syria; it has once again confirmed the ability of both Moscow and Ankara to reach a compromise and effective decisions in the interests of the ultimate goal: settlement of the Syrian conflict, by political and diplomatic means," Peskov said.
Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry said that the Il-20 aircraft had been accidentally downed by Syrian air defenses as the Israeli F-16 jets had been using it as a cover. The ministry added that it considered such actions by Israel to be hostile and reserved the right to take retaliatory steps. Fifteen Russian servicemen were killed as a result of the attack.
