A Kremlin statement said air defence systems were firing near Grozny on Wednesday, but stopped short of saying one of these hit the plane.
The Azerbaijan Airlines plane was flying on Wednesday from Azerbaijan’s capital of Baku to Grozny, the regional capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya, when it turned toward Kazakhstan and crashed while making an attempt to land.
It killed 38 people, but 29 people managed to survive. Putin expressed “his deep and sincere condolences to the families of the victims,” a statement from the Kremlin said on Saturday.
An official probe into the crash has not yet finished, but survivors told authorities they heard three blasts that seemed to come from outside as the aircraft flew over Grozny.
The investigation is focusing on what “weapon” caused the incident, Azerbaijan’s Minister of Digital Development and Transport Rashad Nabiyev said on Friday after speaking with some of the survivors.
The Kremlin statement added that air defence systems were firing near Grozny on Wednesday due to a Ukrainian drone strike, but stopped short of saying one of these hit the plane.
It also noted that the plane had repeatedly attempted to land at the airport in Grozny.
On Saturday Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that he too had spoken with his Azerbaijani counterpart.
Afterwards he posted on X: “Russia must provide clear explanations and stop spreading disinformation. Photos and videos clearly show the damage to the aircraft’s fuselage, including punctures and dents, which strongly point to a strike by an air defencee missile.”
On Thursday, Azerbaijani government sources confirmed to Euronews that an initial investigation revealed a Russian surface-to-air missile was fired at the plane as it flew over Chechnya.