Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted on 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. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, for his part, told Vladimir Putin that the plane had been struck “in Russian airspace” by “external physical interference”, supporting the theory of a Russian anti-aircraft strike.
Mr. Putin noted, in a telephone conversation with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliev, that “the Azerbaijani airliner had repeatedly tried 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.
Since Wednesday’s disaster, suspicion has focused on Russia, which may have accidentally shot down the plane. If Mr. Putin therefore did not recognize Russia’s responsibility on Saturday, he nevertheless apologized to Mr. Aliev. “Vladimir Putin apologized for the fact that this tragic incident occurred in Russian airspace,” the Kremlin said. 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.
The European Union on Saturday called for a “rapid and independent” investigation into the Azerbaijan Airlines crash.