Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday, December 28, apologised to Azerbaijan’s President for the passenger plane crash that happened in Russian airspace in Kazakstan on December 25.
What Putin described as a “tragic incident,” occurred after Russian air defence was used against Ukrainian drones.
Flight J2-8243 became a ball of fire near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan, killing 38 onboard. The crash occurred after the plane diverted from southern Russia where Ukrainian drones were reported to be attacking several cities.
“Vladimir Putin apologised 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 defence systems repelled these attacks,” the Kremlin said.
The call to the Azerbaijan President took place at Putin’s request, said Kremlin.
The Embraer 190 aircraft, operated by Azerbaijan Airlines took off from Baku for Grozny in Russia’s Chechnya but was ‘denied landing due to fog’ in Grozny. The plane was then diverted far off over the Caspian Sea and crashed in Aktau, Kazakhstan resulting in the deaths of 38 out of the 67 people on board with 29 surviving.
Footage from the crash site showed damage to the plane’s nose and shrapnel from the missiles, an observation pointed out by military and aviation experts in foreign media reports such as the Wall Street Journal, Euronews and AFP.
(With inputs from Reuters.)
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