State Department does not believe the Kremlin's version of the IL-76 and Lysychansk as Russia has a long history of spreading lies

The U.S. Department of State does not believe the statements of the aggressor country, Russia, about the causes of the crash of the Russian IL-76 aircraft in the Belgorod region, which allegedly carried prisoners of war. They also believe that the statements of the Russian occupiers about the shelling of a bakery in Lysychansk should be carefully checked.

This was stated by Deputy U.S. Representative Vedant Patel at a briefing in Washington on Monday, February 5, Ukrinform reports. He noted that many stories about the spread of disinformation and lies are associated with the Kremlin.

"It's the same level of credibility as when Russia claimed that Crimea was its or that all the territory it occupied in Ukraine belonged to it," Patel said.

He was responding to a request from journalists to comment on Russia's version of the Il-76 plane. As for Lysychansk in the Luhansk region, the State Department spokesman said that Russia's claims about the alleged shelling of the city with HIMARS missiles, which killed civilians, also cannot be independently verified, given Moscow's constant lies.

The downing of the Il-76 in Russia

A Russian IL-76 military transport aircraft crashed near the village of Yablonovo in the Belgorod region of the Russian Federation on January 24. The aggressor country's Ministry of Defense claims that the plane was allegedly carrying 65 captured Ukrainian soldiers who were being transported for an exchange, as well as six crew members and three escorts, but has not yet provided any evidence.

The DIU confirmed that 65 defenders from the list published by Russian propagandists were indeed planned to be returned to Ukraine as part of the January 24 exchange. However, there is no reliable evidence that the prisoners were actually on board and died as the aggressor does not provide photos of the bodies and does not hand them over to Ukraine.

Strike on Lysychansk

On February 3, Leonid Pasechnik, the leader of the LPR terrorists, announced the shelling of a "bakery" in Lysychansk, blaming the Ukrainian Armed Forces. He claims that 28 people were killed, all of them allegedly civilians. According to media reports, it was not a bakery but a cafe.

As it became known later, after the capture of the city, the occupiers used this place for their own purposes: they held meetings there. They also set up a bakery there to bake bread for the invaders.

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