Separatists shoot down reconnaissance plane E. Ukraine
MOSCOW: Pro-Russian separatists claimed Friday they shot down a reconnaissance aircraft on the eastern outskirts of Sloviansk in the Donetsk Region, east Ukraine.
The An-30 aircraft was circling over the city before being targeted by anti-aircraft guns; its engine caught fire and then it disappeared, Itar-tass news agency reported, citing spokesman of a local militia.
A pillar of black smoke was seen rising from the place where the plane fell, the report without specifying the destiny or whereabouts of the crew.
Fierce battles are still raging between the Ukrainian forces and the local militias in Ukraine’s southeastern regions which refused to recognize the Ukrainian President-Elect Petro Poroshenko.
In a related development, Ukrainian diplomatic sources said representatives of 56 countries, including 23 heads of state and government, confirmed their participation in the inauguration ceremony of Poroshenko, due tomorrow.
Russia will be represented by its Ambassador in Kyiv Mikhail Zurabov.
Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks with Poroshenko on the sidelines of the ceremony commemorating the 70th anniversary of the D-day – the landing operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allied forces in Normandy, north France, during World War II.
The two leaders agreed to work for deescalate tension and stabilize the situation in east Ukraine, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier today.
Putin also discussed the situation in Ukraine with US President Barack Obama, French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the spokesman added.