Azerbaijan Airlines crash: Putin issues apology for ‘tragic incident’
MOSCOW—Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Saturday apologized to Azerbaijan’s president for a “tragic incident” which happened in Russian airspace involving an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger plane that crashed after air defenses were used against Ukrainian drones.
Soon after that disclosure by the Kremlin on Saturday, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also said he had spoken with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, telling him that Russia must provide an explanation for what happened.
Flight J2-8243 crashed on Wednesday in a ball of fire near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan after diverting from southern Russia, where Ukrainian drones were reported to be attacking several cities. At least 38 of the 67 people on board were killed.
‘External interference’
Four sources with knowledge of the preliminary findings of Azerbaijan’s investigation told Reuters on Thursday that Russian air defenses had mistakenly shot it down.
“[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 victims and wished a speedy recovery to the injured,” the Kremlin said in a statement.
“At that time, Grozny, Mozdok and Vladikavkaz were being attacked by Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles, and Russian air defense systems repelled these attacks,” the Kremlin said, adding that Putin’s call was at his request.
Aliyev had noted earlier on Saturday that the plane had been “subjected to external physical and technical interference in Russian airspace, resulting in a complete loss of control and redirection to the Kazakh city of Aktau,” according to Azerbaijan’s presidential office.
Key priority
The Embraer EMBR3.SA passenger jet had flown from Azerbaijan’s capital Baku to Grozny, in Russia’s southern Chechnya region, before veering off hundreds of miles across the Caspian Sea.
Zelenskyy said he had expressed condolences to Aliyev.
“The key priority now is a thorough investigation to provide answers to all questions about what really happened. Russia must provide clear explanations and stop spreading disinformation,” the Ukrainian leader said in a statement on X after the call.
