UPDATE - Russian Defense Ministry's Statement On Il-20 Downing Justified, Balanced - Lawmaker

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 23rd September, 2018) The Russian Defense Ministry's Sunday statement putting all the blame for the downing of Russia's Il-20 reconnaissance aircraft in Syria on the Israeli Air Force is justified and balanced, a senior Russian lawmaker, Alexander Sherin, told Sputnik.

"I completely trust the opinion of the Russian Defense Ministry. Any measures it will take should be supported both by the public and the media ... The Defense Ministry makes very, very balanced final decisions [on anything]. It would be wrong to fault the ministry for taking impulsive, rash acts. Therefore, if the Defense Ministry made such statement [on Israeli responsibility], then it had good reason for this, which can not always be officially announced," Sherin, first deputy chairman of the Russian parliament's lower house's defense committee, said.

The parliamentarian noted that Israel should treat Russia as a partner.

"If [Israel] sees that Russia is engaged in putting things in order in Syria, then there is no need to heat up the situation," he explained.

Russian parliament's upper house member Alexey Pushkov said that Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman did not value the level of relations with Russia.

Lieberman earlier in the day reiterated the position of Israel that the entire responsibility for the incident lied with the Syrian military, calling it "not the investigation's version, but a fact." The defense minister added that Israel did not intend to get involved in disputes with Russia in the media, where, he claimed, the coverage of the situation did not reflect actual discussions and contacts that took place in recent days.

"Judging by the tough statement of Israeli Defense Minister Lieberman, in which no expression of regret could be found, he not only failed to appreciate the level of relations with Russia, as our Defense Ministry suggested, but he wanted to ensure us about [this ungratefulness]," Pushkov said on Twitter.

The Russian Il-20 military aircraft, which was 22 miles off the Syrian coast, was shot down on September 17, while returning to the Hmeimim airbase. At the same time, four Israeli F-16 aircraft were bombing Syrian targets in the province of Latakia. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Israel notified Russia of the airstrikes only a minute before their start and provided misleading information concerning the area of the attack and the location of Israeli F-16 jets. The ministry said that the Israeli pilots used the Russian aircraft as a shield against Syrian air defense systems. As a result, the Il-20 jet was downed by a missile launched by Syria's S-200 air defense system at 10:03 p.m. local time (19:03 GMT). The incident claimed the lives of 15 Russian servicemen.

The Russian Defense Ministry placed the blame for the catastrophe on the Israeli Air Force and on those who had made the decision to carry out the airstrike. According to the ministry's data, the Russian side informed Israel of the tragedy at 10:29 p.m. local time, asking to call off F-16 fighter jets from the area of the incident, however, they continued to remain there until 10:40 p.m., as radars showed. It was not until 10:53 p.m that the Israeli side informed that its jets had left the area, meaning that a total of 50 minutes had passed since the Russian aircraft was hit by a missile.