Russia Sees Turkey's Attack on Su-24 as a Hostile Act

NICOSIA (Sputnik) — Moscow considers Turkey's attack on its Su-24 aircraft to be a hostile act, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday.

"An unprovoked incident took place, hostile against the Russian Federation. That is how we assess it," Lavrov told reporters at a joint press conference with his Cypriot counterpart Ioannis Kasoulides.

A Turkish F-16 fighter shot down the Russian Aerospace Forces Su-24 jet with two pilots on November 24. After the incident, Ankara claimed that it had downed the Russian jet because it had violated Turkish airspace. Both the Russian General Staff and the Syrian Air Defense Command confirmed that the Russian jet never crossed into Turkish airspace from Syria.

One of the pilots of the Russian jet, Oleg Peshkov, was killed by fire from the ground after ejecting, while the co-pilot was rescued and returned to the Russian airbase near Latakia, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

Russian President Vladimir Putin described the attack as a "stab in the back" carried out by "accomplices of terrorists." Moscow imposed a series of economic restrictions on Turkey in response to the incident.