Putin apologizes to the President of Azerbaijan after the “tragic” plane crash

Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized on Saturday to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev for what the Kremlin described as a “tragic incident” that occurred in Russian airspace and involved the Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed on Wednesday after activating air defense systems against Ukrainian drones..

The Azerbaijan Airlines plane crashed last week near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan after diverting its course from an area in southern Russia where air defense systems used to shoot down Ukrainian drones are deployed..

At least 38 people died in this incident, while 29 people survived.

Four sources familiar with the preliminary results of Azerbaijan’s investigation into the incident told Reuters on Thursday that Russian air defenses shot down the plane by mistake..

The Kremlin said in a statement, “(President) Vladimir Putin apologized for the tragic incident that occurred in Russian airspace and once again expressed his deep and sincere condolences to the families of the dead and wounded and wished a speedy recovery for the injured.”

He added, “At that time, Grozny, Modzdok, and Vladikavkaz were attacked by Ukrainian drones, and Russian air defense systems repelled these attacks.”

The Kremlin stated that the call took place at Putin’s request.

The Presidential Office of Azerbaijan said that Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev indicated that the plane “was subjected to external material and technical interference in Russian airspace, which led to a complete loss of control and its redirection to the Kazakh city of Aktau.”

The Embraer passenger plane took off from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, heading to Grozny in Chechnya, south of Russia, before deviating from its course hundreds of miles across the Caspian Sea..