Russian president Vladimir Putin on Saturday apologised to his Azerbaijan counterpart Ilham Aliyev for the Kazakhstan plane crash that killed 38 people. In a telephone conversation, Putin informed Aliyev that Russian air defence systems were operational to counter Ukrainian drones when the Azerbaijani Airlines aircraft attempted to land in Grozny prior to its crash, according to a Kremlin statement.
“During this time, Grozny, (the town of) Mozdok and Vladikavkaz were being attacked by Ukrainian combat drones and Russian air defence was repelling these attacks,” the Kremlin said, whilst not directly indicating whether Russian air defence was responsible for downing the aircraft.
Putin also offered his apologies to the Azerbaijani leader for “tragic incident”. The Azerbaijan Airlines aircraft crashed in western Kazakhstan, resulting in several casualties.
This comes a day after Russia and Ukraine put the blame on each other for the plane crash. Chief of Russia’s civil aviation authority Dmitry Yadrov had said, “Ukrainian military drones were carrying out terrorist attacks on civilian infrastructure… at the time,” adding that the plane made two unsuccessful attempts to land.
Meanwhile, Ukraine had stuck to claiming Russia’s involvement and said, “Russia must be held responsible for the downing of the Azerbaijan Airlines plane.”
Azerbaijan Airlines also on Friday had revealed that initial investigation into the crash of its aircraft was likely due to “external interference of a physical and technical nature”.
Various news sources earlier claimed Azerbaijani officials suggesting that a Russian air defence missile might have caused the incident. However other reports have claimed Ukrainian involvement while some claimed a simple accident of plane hitting a bird.