Days after the crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines plane near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan. On Saturday, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin apologised to Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan, for a “tragic incident” in Russian airspace.
“(President) Vladimir Putin apologised for the tragic incident that occurred in Russian airspace and once again expressed his deep and sincere condolences to the families of the victims and wished a speedy recovery to the injured,” the Kremlin said in a statement as reported by Reuters.
“It was noted in the conversation that the Azerbaijani passenger aircraft, which was travelling according to its schedule, repeatedly tried to land at Grozny airport. At that time, Grozny, Mozdok and Vladikavkaz were being attacked by Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles, and Russian air defence systems repelled these attacks,” it added.
Moscow has declined to comment on reports the plane could have been accidentally shot down by its air defence.
