Azerbaijan’s Aliyev says crashed plane was shot from Russia
- 29 December, 10:44
Azerbaijan has officially accused Russia of shooting its passenger plane that killed 38 people. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said on Sunday that Azerbaijani Airlines plane that crashed in Kazakhstan on December 25 was damaged by fire from inside Russia, and demanded that Kremlin admits its “guilt”.
Aliyev’s comments came a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized to Aliyev for what he described as a “tragic” event involving the Baku-Grozny plane, without directly acknowledging that the plane had been hit in Russian airspace.
"The facts are that the Azerbaijani civilian plane was damaged from the outside over Russian territory, near the city of Grozny [in Russia’s Chechnya republic], and almost lost control. We also know that electronic warfare systems put our plane out of control," Aliyev told local media.
The Azerbaijani leader said Russia had made "clear attempts to cover up the matter". "Unfortunately, in the first three days we heard only absurd versions from Russia… We witnessed clear attempts to cover up the matter." Aliyev said, citing statements in Russian media that attributed the crash to birds or the explosion of gas cylinder inside the plane.
“Admitting the guilt, apologising in a timely manner to Azerbaijan, which is considered a friendly country, and informing the public about this - all these were measures and steps that should have been taken," Aliyev said. He acknowledged that that the attack was not of deliberate character. “Of course, there can be no talks of a deliberate act of terror here,” Aliyev stressed.
Azerbaijani Airlines Flight J2-8243 that was bound from capital Baku to Groznyy city, crashed on December 25 after being diverted to Kazakhstan. The plane was denied landing in Groznyy where Ukrainian drone attacks were taking place as well as in the cities of Makhachkala and Mineralniye Vody. In a phone call to Aliyev on Saturday, Putin acknowledged that Russian air defence system was repelling Ukrainian drone attacks on the day Azerbaijan Airlines plane was flying over Chechnya. However, Putin stopped short of acknowledging that Russian air defence system struck the plane. Twenty-nine of the 67 passengers on board survived the crash.
