Russian President Vladimir Putin has apologized to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev following the downing of a commercial plane in Russian airspace that killed 38 people. However, Mr. Putin stopped short of acknowledging Russia’s responsibility for the incident.
After a phone call between Mr. Putin and Mr. Aliyev, the Kremlin said the Russian President described it as a tragic incident occurring while Russian air defence systems were actively repelling Ukrainian drone attacks.
Earlier, some media outlets reported that the plane, targeted by Russian air defence systems as it attempted to land in Chechnya, was forced to divert over the Caspian Sea. It crash-landed in Kazakhstan, killing 38 of the 67 passengers on board.
“Vladimir Putin apologised for the tragic incident that occurred in Russian airspace and once again expressed his deep and sincere condolences to the families of the victims and wished a speedy recovery to the injured,” the Kremlin said.
“At that time, Grozny, Mozdok and Vladikavkaz were being attacked by Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles, and Russian air defence systems repelled these attacks.”