Daily Star reported Russian President Vladimir Putin has publicly apologized to his counterpart in Azerbaijan for a major error which saw a fighter jet crash down to the ground.
The Russian leader sent his regret to the Azerbaijani president after a lengthy phone call with him on Christmas day.
Ilham Aliyev expressed concern over a fatal plane crash in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, according to Kremlin sources. Putin reportedly felt some-what responsible for the incident, which took place in state-controlled airspace.
Adding to this, he also sent out heart-felt condolences to the families of the victims. However, he did add that the incident was down to Ukrainian defences, rather than a Russian attack. But, it is noted Putin did not fully blame airstrikes or other war activity, and has not accepted responsibility.
It was supposedly noted that the plane had repeatedly attempted to land at the airport in Grozny, the capital of Chechnya. Putin claimed that during the attempted landing, Grozny, as well as the cities of Mozdok and Vladikavkaz "were attacked by Ukrainian combat unmanned aerial vehicles, and Russian air defence systems repelled these attacks."
He went on to add that this innocent jet may have got caught in an incident, which led to it being torn from the sky and left those onboard dead. The Embraer 190 aircraft left the Azerbaijani capital Baku on Wednesday morning, and was due to fly to Grozny in Chechnya but was diverted because of fog, according to the airline.
Survivors relayed that the plane was was redirected to Aktau airport, some 450km (280 miles) to the east after several attempts to land in the fog. However, then the plane hurtled to the ground in a ball of flames.
Horrifying footage shows captured the moment which saw the plane hurtling to the ground at high speed just a few kilometres short of the runway. Upon landing, it completely burst into flames. An investigation broke out straight away, but initially reports from Russian state-controlled TV said the most likely cause was a strike from a flock of birds, rather than an attack from the Ukrainian defence.
The crash killed 38 people, but 29 people managed to survive. After speaking to the survivors, Azerbaijan's Minister of Digital Development and Transport Rashad Nabiyev decided to focus on a "weapon" which seemed to have caused the attack. From this conclusion, Putin got on the phone with Aliyev.
The Kremlin statement said that air defence systems were firing near Grozny on Wednesday due to a Ukrainian drone strike, but did not one of these hit the plane. Instead, he apologised for any inconvenience to the President and the family of the victims.
Bd-Pratidin English/ Afsar Munna
