Putin apologized to Aliyev for the fact that the “tragic incident” with the Azerbaijan Airlines plane occurred in Russian airspace

During a telephone conversation, Vladimir Putin apologized to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev for the fact that the “tragic incident” with an Azerbaijan Airlines plane occurred in Russian airspace. The Kremlin press service reported this.

The Russian politician also expressed condolences to the families of those killed in the plane crash and wished a speedy recovery to the injured.

“In the conversation, it was noted that the Azerbaijani passenger aircraft, which was flying strictly according to schedule, repeatedly tried to land at the airport in Grozny. At this time, Grozny, Mozdok and Vladikavkaz were attacked by Ukrainian combat unmanned aerial vehicles, and Russian air defense systems repelled these attacks,” the Kremlin press service quoted the gist of the conversation between the politicians.

Russia is investigating a criminal case under the article on “violation of traffic safety rules and operation of air transport” (Article 263 of the Criminal Code), the report notes. Civilian and military experts are being interrogated as part of the case. In addition, two employees of the Prosecutor General's Office of Azerbaijan work in Grozny, and Russian investigators are assisting them.

The Kremlin press service emphasized that the conversation took place at the initiative of the Russian side.

On December 25, an Azerbaijan Airlines flight crashed in Aktau, Kazakhstan. 38 people died, including 7 Russians.

Shortly after the disaster, footage of holes in the ship's fuselage appeared on social networks. After this, bloggers and journalists began to claim that the plane was the target of an attack from an anti-aircraft missile system. Euronews sources in the Azerbaijani government confirmed that the plane was shot down by a Russian surface-to-air missile while repelling a Ukrainian drone attack on Grozny.