Russian President Vladimir Putin has apologized to the president of neighboring Azerbaijan over the downing of a commercial airliner in Russian airspace that killed 38 people – but stopped short of saying Russia was responsible.
In his first comments on the Christmas Day crash, Putin said the “tragic incident” had occurred when Russian air defense systems rejected Ukrainian drones.
Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky said Russia must “stop spreading disinformation” about the strike.
The plane is believed to have come under fire from Russian air defenses as it attempted to land in the Russian region of Chechnya – forcing it to divert over the Caspian Sea.
The Azerbaijan Airlines plane then crashed near Aktau in Kazakhstan, killing 38 of the 67 on board.
Most of the passengers on the plane were from Azerbaijan, with others from Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
Most of them are believed that survived sat in the back of the plane.
Flight J2-8243 had been en route from Azerbaijan’s capital Baku to the Chechen capital Grozny on December 25 when it came under fire and was forced to divert.
The Kremlin released a statement on Saturday noting that Putin had spoken with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev by phone.
“(President) Vladimir Putin apologized for the tragic incident taking place in Russian airspace and once again expressed his deep and sincere condolences to the families of the victims and wished the injured a speedy recovery,” it said.
In the rare public apology, Putin also acknowledged that the plane had repeatedly attempted to land at Grozny airport in Chechnya.
At the time, the cities of Grozny, Mozdok and Vladikavkaz “were being attacked by Ukrainian drones, and Russian air defense systems repelled these attacks”, he said.
The Kremlin readout did not directly admit that the plane had been hit by Russian missiles.
In a statement released shortly after the Kremlin’s, Ukrainian President Zelensky said the damage to the plane’s fuselage was “very reminiscent of an air defense missile attack,” adding that Russia “must give clear explanations.”
“The key priority now is a thorough investigation that will answer all questions about what really happened.”
Before Saturday, the Kremlin had refused to say whether it was involved in the crash with authorities saying they were awaiting investigation results.
But Russian aviation authorities had said earlier this week that the situation in the region was “very complicated” because of Ukrainian drone strikes.
Aviation experts and others in Azerbaijan believe the plane’s GPS systems were affected by electronic jamming and it was then damaged by shrapnel from Russian air defense missile blasts.
Survivors had previously reported hearing loud bangs before the plane crashed, suggesting it had been targeted.
Azerbaijan had not officially accused Russia this week, but the country’s transport minister said the plane was subject to “external interference” and was damaged internally and externally when it tried to land.
US defense officials had also said on Friday that they believed Russia was responsible for the shoot down.
Moscow noted that Russian investigators had launched a criminal investigation. Azerbaijan had already announced that it would open an investigation.
The Kremlin said Azeri, Kazakh and Russian agencies “worked closely together at the scene of the disaster in the Aktau region”.
Even before Putin’s message was released on Saturday, several airlines from Azerbaijan had already started suspending flights to most Russian cities.
The suspension will remain in place until the investigation into the crash is complete, an airline said.