Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday apologized to the president of Azerbaijan for what he called a “tragic incident” following the crash of an Azerbaijani airliner in Kazakhstan that killed 38 people, but denied that Russia was responsible. I didn’t admit it.
President Putin’s apology came amid growing suspicions that the plane was shot down by Russian air defenses trying to deflect a Ukrainian drone attack near Grozny, the regional capital of Russia’s Chechen Republic.
An official Kremlin statement released on Saturday said air defense systems were on fire near Grozny Airport as the airliner “repeatedly” attempted to land on Wednesday. It has not been stated that one of these hit the plane.
Putin apologized to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev “for the fact that the tragic incident occurred in Russian airspace,” the statement said.
According to the statement, Russia has launched a criminal investigation into the incident, and Azerbaijan’s state prosecutor has also arrived in Grozny to take part. The Kremlin also said “relevant agencies” from Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan were jointly investigating the crash site near the Kazakh city of Aktau.
The plane was flying from Azerbaijan’s capital Baku to Grozny when it veered off to Kazakhstan, hundreds of kilometers across the Caspian Sea, and crashed while attempting to land. There were 29 survivors.
Azerbaijan’s president told Putin that the plane was subject to “physical and technological interference from outside,” but blamed Russia’s air defenses, according to a reading of the call provided by President Aliyev’s press office. I didn’t get to that point.
Aliyev said the plane had multiple holes in its fuselage and the crew members were injured “by a foreign object that entered the cabin during the flight.”
He said an international team of experts had begun investigating the incident on Azerbaijan’s initiative, but gave no details. Earlier this week, Azerbaijan’s Prosecutor General’s Office confirmed that Azerbaijani investigators are operating in Grozny.
On Friday, U.S. officials and Azerbaijan’s ministers issued separate statements saying the crash was caused by an external weapon, and aviation experts said the crash was caused by Russian air defenses responding to the Ukrainian attack. I agreed with the statement.
Passengers and crew members who survived the crash told Azerbaijani media that they heard loud noises coming from the plane circling over Grozny.
Dmitry Yadorov, head of Russia’s civil aviation authority Rosaviasia, said on Friday that the plane was about to land in Grozny in heavy fog when Ukrainian drones targeted the city and authorities closed the area to air traffic. said.
After two unsuccessful attempts to land, the captain was offered other airports, but decided to fly to Aktau, Yadorov said.
Earlier this week, Rosaviasia cited unspecified early evidence that the bird strike caused the emergency on board.
Days after the crash, Azerbaijan Airlines announced the suspension of flights to several Russian airports, blaming “physical and technical interference”. It did not say where the interference came from or provide further details.
If it is proven that the plane crashed after being hit by Russian artillery fire, it would be the second deadly civil aviation accident related to the fighting in Ukraine. Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down by a Russian surface-to-air missile in 2014 while flying over eastern Ukraine controlled by Moscow-backed separatists, killing all 298 people on board.
Russia denies responsibility, but a Dutch court in 2022 found two Russians and a pro-Russian Ukrainian man guilty of shooting down a plane with an air defense system brought into Ukraine from a Russian military base. handed down the verdict.
Following the suspension of flights from Baku to Grozny and nearby Makhachkala on Wednesday, Azerbaijan Airlines announced on Friday that it would also suspend flights to eight further Russian cities.
Several other airlines have made similar announcements following the crash. Kazakhstan’s Kazakh Airlines announced on Friday that it would suspend flights from Astana to Yekaterinburg, a city in Russia’s Ural Mountains, for a month.
Turkmenistan Airlines, the central Asian country’s main airline, on Saturday suspended flights to Moscow for at least a month, citing safety concerns. Earlier this week, Israel’s El Al Airlines suspended flights from Tel Aviv to the Russian capital, citing “developments in Russian airspace.”
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