MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Mogherini said she would be meeting top diplomats of both Russia and Turkey shortly to make sure that the incident would not affect the political perspectives the sides managed to reach during Vienna international talks on the Syrian reconciliation.
"Let me stress this very clearly, it would be a terrible mistake if out of tensions on the ground that can be very high and very difficult to manage we cancel or we downgrade the level of diplomatic and political engagement," Mogherini told journalists.
On Tuesday, the Russian Su-24 combat aircraft crashed in Syria while carrying out precision airstrikes against terrorists. Moscow said it was downed by an air-to-air missile, fired from a Turkish F-16 fighter in response to alleged violation of Turkish airspace, an accusation denied both by the Russian General Staff and the Syrian Air Defense Command.
Russian President Vladimir Putin described the Turkish attack as a "stab in the back" carried out by "accomplices of terrorists." On Saturday, Moscow rolled out a series of economic measures against Turkey.
Both Russia and Turkey participate in the so-called Vienna process on the Syrian peace settlement.
