Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized to his Azerbaijani counterpart on Saturday for what he described as a “tragic incident” following the crash of an Azerbaijani airliner in Kazakhstan that killed 38 people, but refused to admit that Moscow was responsible.
Putin's apology comes amid growing allegations that Russian air defenses shot down the plane trying to intercept a Ukrainian drone strike near Grozny, the regional capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya.
An official Kremlin statement on Saturday said air defense systems were firing near Grozny airport as the plane “repeatedly” attempted to land on Wednesday. He did not specifically say that one of them hit the plane.
Putin apologized to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev “for the fact that this tragic incident took place in Russian airspace,” the statement said.
Russia has opened a criminal investigation into the incident, and Azerbaijani state prosecutors have arrived in Grozny to participate, the readout said. The Kremlin also said “relevant services” from Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan were jointly investigating the crash site near the city of Oktav in Kazakhstan.
The plane was flying from the Azerbaijani capital of Baku to Grozny when it diverted to Kazakhstan, hundreds of kilometers (miles) from its intended destination across the Caspian Sea, and crashed while attempting to land. 29 survived.
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According to a readout of the call provided by Aliyev's press office, the Azerbaijani president told Putin that the plane was the victim of “external physical and technical interference,” though he stopped short of blaming Russian air defenses. .
Aliyev noted that the plane's body had multiple holes and that passengers were “injured by foreign particles entering the cabin mid-flight.”
On Friday, a U.S. official and an Azerbaijani minister issued separate statements that blamed the crash on a foreign weapon, echoing statements by aviation experts who said the Russians were responding to the Ukraine attack. An air defense system was blamed for the crash.
Passengers and crew who survived the crash told Azerbaijani media that they heard loud noises as the plane circled over Grozny.
Dmitry Yadrov, head of Russia's civil aviation authority Rosaviatsia, said on Friday that as the plane was preparing to land in Grozny in thick fog, Ukrainian drones were targeting the city, prompting authorities to close the area to air traffic. was closed.
Yadrov said that after two failed landing attempts by the captain, he was offered other airports but decided to fly to Aktau.
Earlier in the week, Rosaviatsia cited unspecified preliminary evidence indicating that the bird strike triggered an emergency on board.
In the days following the crash, Azerbaijan Airlines blamed “physical and technical interference” and announced the suspension of flights to several Russian airports. He did not say where the interception took place or provide further details.
and copy 2024 Canadian Press