Putin issues stern warning to Turkey as tensions grow after downing of Russian plane
A furious Vladimir Putin has warned there will be 'serious consequences' after Turkey shot down a Russian jet near the Syrian border, denying Turkey's claims the jet was warned 10 times before it was targeted.
"The tragic event will have serious consequences for Russian-Turkish relations," Putin said.
"We will never tolerate such crimes like the one committed today."
Australia PM says no global support for troops on the ground in Syria
Suspected 'ISIS recruiter' bombed during middle of propaganda video
Russian military spokesman Rudskoi warned the shooting down would have the "the gravest consequences" and noted Russia's Moskva guided missile cruiser would be stationed near the Syrian Mediterranean port of Latakia.
"All targets representing a potential threat to us will be destroyed," he said.
Turkey shot down the Russian war plane on the Syrian border on Tuesday, an act Putin denounced as a "stab in the back" by "accomplices of terrorists" as tensions spiral between two rival players in the Syria war.
Video has since emerged of what appears to be Syrian rebels shooting down a helicopter looking for the two pilots who parachuted out of the Russian jet.
The search and rescue helicopter was forced to land in the province of Latakia after being hit by a rocket, the The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Helicopters were combing the area between Jabal Turkman and government-held Kassab on the Turkish border searching for a Russian pilot.
There have been mixed reports about whether the two pilots survived the firey crash.
"Turkey has information that the two pilots are alive and right now Turkey is trying to recover them," an official told AFP, after reports that at least one of the pilots could have died after parachuting down inside Syria.
However, CNN-Turk television said Syrian Turkmen forces fighting the Damascus regime had captured one of the pilots while Syrian opposition sources told AFP one had been killed by rebels and the second was missing.
The Turkish army said the plane was shot down by two of its F-16s after it violated Turkish airspace 10 times within a five-minute period, an assertion backed up by its NATO ally the United States.
Moscow insisted that the jet had stayed inside Syrian territory, and Damascus denounced the incident as "flagrant aggression against Syrian sovereignty".
In Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov just said "there is no official information" about the fate of the pilots from the downed plane.
Turkish television pictures showed the Su-24 exploding and crashing in a ball of flames into a Syrian mountain and two pilots parachuting to the ground after ejecting.
The incident was the first of its kind since Russia launched air strikes in Syria in September in support of President Bashar al-Assad's regime, causing concern in the West over a possible clash with US-led coalition planes also in the skies.
Turkey called an extraordinary meeting of NATO while Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he had scrapped a planned trip to Turkey on Wednesday aimed at narrowing differences on the Syria conflict.
Putin said the plane fell in Syrian territory four kilometres from the border and "did not in any way threaten Turkey".
