In a major development, Russian President Vladimir Putin has apologised to Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev over the Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash that killed 38 onboard. There were allegations that Azerbaijan Airlines plane crashed because it came under Russian fire. Putin’s apology has substantiated these claims.
Putin said that the civilian plane was fired upon when Russia was trying to repel Ukrainian drones.
“The Azerbaijani passenger aircraft, which was travelling according to its schedule, repeatedly tried to land at Grozny airport. At that time, Grozny, Mozdok and Vladikavkaz were being attacked by Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles, and Russian air defense systems repelled these attacks,” said the Kremlin.
In his conversation with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Putin described the crash as a ‘tragic incident’ that occurred in Russian airspace.
Azerbaijan Airlines’ flight J2-8243 crashed on Christmas Day near Kazakhstani city of Aktau. The passenger plane was travelling from Baku (Azerbaijan) to Grozny (Russia) when it was re-routed to Aktau due to fog in Grozny.
(This is a breaking story. More to follow shortly.)
