Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his regrets to his Azerbaijani counterpart, Ilham Aliyev, after a tragic incident in Russian airspace. In a telephone interview, Putin apologized for the shooting down of an Azerbaijani Airlines (AZAL) plane.
The Kremlin statement, released on Saturday, noted that Putin apologized for the tragic event, offering condolences to the victims’ families and wishing survivors a speedy recovery. The unfortunate incident came as Ukrainian drone attacks targeted the cities of Grozny, Mozdok and Vladikavkaz, to which Russian air defense systems responded.
An investigation has been launched to understand the circumstances surrounding this accident. Currently, two officials from the Prosecutor General’s Office of Azerbaijan are present in Grozny. They are working closely with Russian and Kazakh authorities at the accident site near Aktau.
The AZAL plane, an Embraer 190, was on a flight between Baku and Grozny when it crashed on December 25 near the town of Aktau in Kazakhstan, causing 38 deaths and 29 injuries. According to Azerbaijani officials, the aircraft was attacked by a Russian defense system, the “Pantsir-S”.
This information was reported by the Anadolu agency and transcribed by our team to keep you informed of developments in real time.
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