Putin apologises to Azerbaijan president over 'tragic' plane crash

29/12/2024 7:38

Russian President Vladimir Putin apologised on Saturday (Dec 28) over the crash of an Azerbaijani Airlines plane, though he stopped short of accepting that it might have been hit by Russian fire.



Putin did admit that Russian air defences were at work when the passenger plane tried to land in Grozny before crashing, and the Kremlin said Putin apologised to Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev over the "tragic incident" in a phone call, but did not say Russian air defence shot the plane.



Moscow had earlier said that Grozny, where the plane was due to land but instead crashed in western Kazakhstan, was attacked by Ukrainian drones that day.