Putin apologizes to Azerbaijani leader for “tragic incident” involving crashed plane in Kazakhstan
Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized to his Azerbaijani counterpart on Saturday for the “tragic events” that followed the incident. An Azerbaijani passenger plane crashed in Kazakhstan, killing 38 people.
The plane was flying from Azerbaijan’s capital Baku to Grozny, the capital of Russia’s Chechen Republic region, when it suddenly diverted to Kazakhstan and crashed while trying to land. There were 29 survivors.
The Kremlin said in an official statement on Saturday that air defense systems opened fire near Grozny on Wednesday due to a Ukrainian drone strike, but did not say one of them hit the aircraft.
On Friday, a U.S. official and an Azerbaijani minister issued separate statements blaming external weapons for the crash.
