Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized to his Azerbaijani counterpart on Saturday for what he called a “tragic incident” following the crash of an Azerbaijani plane in Kazakhstan that killed 38 people.
The plane was flying on Wednesday from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, to Grozny, the regional capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya, when it turned toward Kazakhstan and crashed while attempting to land. There were 29 survivors.
In an official statement on Saturday, the Kremlin said air defense systems were firing near Grozny due to a Ukrainian drone attack as the plane attempted to land, but stopped short of saying one of them hit the plane.
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According to a Kremlin readout of the call, Putin apologized to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev “for the fact that the tragic incident occurred in Russian airspace.”
On Friday, a U.S. official and an Azerbaijani minister made separate statements blaming an external weapon for the crash.
Friday's assessments from Rashan Nabiyev and White House national security spokesman John Kirby echoed those by outside aviation experts who blamed the crash on Russian air defense systems responding to a Ukrainian attack.
Neither Kirby nor the Azerbaijani minister directly addressed the statements blaming air defenses.
Passengers and crew who survived the crash told Azerbaijani media that they heard loud noises on the plane as it flew over Grozny.
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