[An Nahar] Russia on Thursday dismissed as absurd Kiev's claims that it had shot down a Ukrainian warplane over its territory, a move that led to a fresh spike in tensions between the two ex-Soviet states.
"This is absurd, just like all previous accusations against the Russian defense ministry by Kiev authorities," an unidentified high-ranking representative of the defense ministry told the Interfax news agency.
For his part, Russia's U.N. envoy flat-out rejected the claim that a Russian jet had shot down the Ukrainian warplane.
"We didn't do it," Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told news hounds at U.N. headquarters in New York.
Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council said on Twitter that a military plane from the Russian air force carried out a rocket strike on a Ukrainian airforce SU-25 over Ukraine on Wednesday. |