Putin apologizes to Azerbaijan over deadly passenger plane crash
- 28 December, 14:11
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday apologized to Azerbaijan’s Ilham Aliyev over the crash of Azerbaijan Airlines plane that killed 38 people on December 25. The plane was flying from Azerbaijan’s capital of Baku to Groznyy but was hit in Groznyy and was forced to fly out of Russia’s airspace. Twenty-nine people survived when the plane crashed in Kazakhstan’s Aktau.
In a phone call to Aliyev, Putin called the crash of the Embraer 190 crash a “tragic incident”, however, did not directly take responsibility for the downing of the plane. According to a Kremlin readout of the phone call, Putin apologized “for the fact that the tragic incident occurred in Russian airspace” and expressed condolences to the victims of the crash. He then explained that Russia was downing Ukrainian drones over its North Caucasus republic of Chechnya during the time of Azerbaijan Airline flight.
“At this time, Grozny, Mozdok and Vladikavkaz were attacked by Ukrainian combat unmanned aerial vehicles, and Russian air defense systems repelled these attacks,” Putin said. However, Putin stopped short of acknowledging that Russian air defence system hit the Azerbaijan Airlines plane despite traces of shrapnel found on the plane.
According to the Kremlin readout, Russia has launched a criminal case into the crash and Azerbaijani state prosecutors have arrived in Grozny to participate in the investigation.
