Ukraine Leader Agrees Missile Probably Hit Jet

Two days after Ukrainian and Russian defense officials said a Ukrainian missile probably downed a Russian passenger jet earlier this month, Ukraine’s president said Sunday that he agreed with that assessment.

President Leonid D. Kuchma had earlier denied that a Ukrainian missile accidentally hit the Siberian Airlines plane over the Black Sea, killing all 78 aboard.

“The most probable cause of the recent crash of a Russian Tu-154 airliner was that it was hit by a missile launched during Ukrainian air defense exercises in the Crimea,” Kuchma said during a visit to the town of Kalush, Russia’s Interfax news agency reported.

The jet went down Oct. 4 over the Black Sea. Most of the passengers on the flight from Tel Aviv to Novosibirsk, Russia, were recent Russian immigrants to Israel.

Kuchma formerly directed a major Soviet missile factory. On Oct. 6, he cited his experience with missiles and said an accidental strike was impossible.

But on Friday, Russian and Ukrainian investigators said missile fragments had been found among the wreckage. Ukraine’s defense minister and air defenses chief have offered their resignations, but Kuchma has not yet accepted them.

“We don’t know the causes of this tragedy today, but we know that we are related to it,” Ukraine’s defense minister, Lt. Gen. Oleksandr Kuzmuk, said Saturday at a news conference. He apologized to the victims’ relatives and friends.