The Azerbaijan Airlines plane which crashed on Wednesday December 25 killed 38 people.
Is the hypothesis of a Russian defense error confirmed? Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted this Saturday, December 28, according to the Kremlin, that Russian air defense was in action on Wednesday when an Azerbaijani plane attempted to land, an aircraft which crashed shortly after in Kazakhstan.
Vladimir Putin noted, in a telephone conversation with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev, that “The Azerbaijani airliner had repeatedly attempted to land at Grozny airport. At the same time, Grozny, Mozdok and Vladikavkaz were attacked by Ukrainian combat drones, and Russian air defenses repelled these attacks.. The Russian president, however, did not indicate whether the plane had been hit by these defenses.
An apology from Vladimir Putin
Since Wednesday’s disaster, suspicion has focused on Russia, which may have accidentally shot down the plane. If Vladimir Putin did not recognize Russia’s responsibility on Saturday, he nevertheless apologized to Ilham Aliev. “Vladimir Putin apologized for the fact that this tragic incident occurred in Russian airspace”indicated the Kremlin.
Earlier, his spokesperson Dmitri Peskov had refused to comment on the White House’s comments which had mentioned a Russian anti-aircraft defense shot. In addition, several Western experts believe that the images showing a fuselage riddled with holes suggest such a strike.
On Wednesday, an Embraer 190 plane of the Azerbaijani company Azerbaijan Airlines crashed in Aktau, in western Kazakhstan, on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea, while the plane was supposed to connect Baku to Grozny, on the opposite bank . 38 of the 67 people on board the plane were killed when the plane crashed and caught fire.
Suspended flights
Several airlines have since announced that they are suspending their flights to Russian cities. Turkmenistan’s national airline, Turkmenistan Airlines, announced on Saturday that “Regular flights Ashkhabad-Moscow-Ashkhabad are canceled” from December 30 to January 31, without providing explanations. Flydubai, for its part, said it was canceling its flights between Dubai and the southern Russian cities of Mineralnye Vody and Sochi, scheduled between December 27 and January 3.
The Kazakh company Qazaq Air has suspended its flights to Yekaterinburg in the Urals until the end of January. They follow in the footsteps of the Israeli company El Al, which indicated on Thursday that it was suspending its flights to Russia for a week due to the situation. “in Russian airspace”.
Updated at 2:15 p.m.: more context.
