The Russian Defense Ministry has said that 39 people aboard an Antonov An-26 transport plane were killed after it crashed while landing at the Hmeimim airfield in Syria, the worst Russian disaster in the war-torn country since Moscow began its military operations there in the autumn of 2011. The plane crashed on Tuesday while landing at the airfield and hit the ground when it was about 500 meters short of the runway. According to preliminary information, a technical malfunction could have been the cause of the disaster, the Defense Ministry said. All crew members and passengers were killed. "No fire was delivered against the plane. A commission of Russia’s Defense Ministry will examine all possible versions of the crash," the ministry added. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu informed Russian President Vladimir Putin over the phone on the crash, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. The Russian president, who is on a working visit to the Sverdlovsk Region, got the latest information available on the disaster and ordered an investigation into what happened. Meanwhile, expectations over “military action” against Syria as a punitive measure grew on Tuesday, after Damascus was accused of using chemical weapons in Eastern Ghouta and violating UN resolutions calling for a truce across the country, The Washington Post reported. Russia’s “Novosti” news agency also quoted a senior US administration official as saying that Secretary of Defense James Mattis was “adamantly” against acting militarily in response to the reports about Damascus’ chlorine attacks and that National Security Adviser Hebert McMaster “was for it.” The issue was discussed last week during a White House meeting on the situation in Syria, which was chaired by President Donald Trump and attended by Chief of Staff John Kelly, McMaster and Mattis.