Putin apologizes for the crash of Azerbaijan Airlines but does not accept blame

Russian President Vladimir Putin has apologized to the president of neighboring Azerbaijan for the downing of a commercial airliner at a Russian airport, in which 38 people died – but he insisted that Russia was responsible.

In his opening remarks on the Christmas Day disaster, Putin said a “tragic incident” occurred when Russian air defense systems shot down Ukrainian drones.

Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky said Russia must “stop spreading misinformation” about the strike.

The plane is believed to have been attacked by Russian Air Defense while attempting to land in Russian territory in Chechnya – forcing it to divert and cross the Caspian Sea.

An Azerbaijan Airlines plane crashed near Aktau in Kazakhstan, killing 38 of the 67 people on board.

Most of the passengers on the plane were from Azerbaijan, with others from Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

It is believed that most of them who survived they were sitting at the back of the plane.

Flight J2-8243 was en route from Azerbaijan’s capital Baku to Chechen capital Grozny on December 25 when it was attacked and forced to divert.

The Kremlin released a statement on Saturday noting that Putin spoke with Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev by phone.

“(President) Vladimir Putin apologized for the terrible incident that happened in the Russian airspace and also expressed his condolences to the families of the victims and wished the injured a speedy recovery,” the statement said.

In a rare apology announced, Putin also acknowledged that the plane had made several attempts to land at Grozny airport in Chechnya.

At the time, the cities of Grozny, Mozdok and Vladikavkaz “were attacked by Ukrainian drones, and Russian air defense systems repelled the attack”, he said.

The Kremlin did not directly acknowledge that the plane was hit by a Russian missile.

In a statement issued shortly after the Kremlin, Ukrainian President Zelensky said the damage to the plane “reminiscent of an air defense missile strike”, adding that Russia “must give clear explanations”.

“The main thing now is a thorough investigation that will answer all the questions about what really happened.”

Before Saturday, the Kremlin had it he refused to say whether it is involved in this accident, the authorities say they are still waiting for the results of the investigation.

But Russian aviation authorities earlier in the week said the situation in the region was “extremely difficult” because of the Ukrainian strikes.

Aviation experts and others in Azerbaijan believe the plane’s GPS systems were affected by electronic jamming and then damaged by explosives from Russian air defense missiles.

Survivors have previously reported hearing a loud noise before the plane crashed, indicating that it was targeted.

Azerbaijan has not formally blamed Russia this week, but the country’s transport minister said the plane was experiencing “external interference” and was damaged both internally and externally when it attempted to land.

US defense officials on Friday also said they believe it Russia was responsible which is lowered.

Moscow noted that Russian investigators had launched a criminal investigation. Azerbaijan has already announced that it will start an investigation.

The Kremlin said Azeri, Kazakh and Russian organizations are “working closely at the disaster site in the Aktau region”.

Even before Putin’s message was issued on Saturday, many airlines from Azerbaijan had started to stop flights to many Russian cities.

The suspension will continue until the investigation into the accident is completed, another airline said.