KIEV: The separatist rebels have shot down a Ukrainian military Il-76 transport jet in the country’s eastern city of Luhansk last night that left 49 Ukrainian military personnel on board killed, a military spokesman said on Saturday.
Luhansk is one of the centers of a pro-Russian separatist movement in Ukraine’s east which has risen up against the pro-European government in Kiev.
“On the night of June 13-14, the terrorists…fired from an anti-aircraft weapon and a large caliber machine gun, shooting down an Il-76 military transport aircraft … as it was about to land,” a foreign news agency quoted defence ministry as saying in a statement.
