Moscow mentioned air defence programs have been firing close to Grozny in Chechnya on Wednesday, however stopped in need of saying the passenger airplane was hit by one in every of them.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday apologised to Azerbaijan’s chief for what he referred to as a “tragic incident” following the crash of an Azerbaijani airliner in Kazakhstan that killed 38 folks, however stopped in need of acknowledging that Moscow was accountable.
Putin’s apology got here amid mounting allegations that the airplane had been shot down by Russian air defences trying to deflect a Ukrainian drone strike close to Grozny, the regional capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya.
An official Kremlin assertion issued on Saturday mentioned that air defence programs have been firing close to Grozny airport because the airliner “repeatedly” tried to land there on Wednesday. It didn’t nonetheless explicitly say one in every of these hit the airplane.
The assertion mentioned Putin apologised to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev “for the truth that the tragic incident occurred in Russian airspace.”
The readout mentioned Russia has launched a felony probe into the incident, and Azerbaijani state prosecutors have arrived in Grozny to take part. The Kremlin additionally mentioned that “related companies” from Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan are collectively investigating the crash web site close to the town of Aktau in Kazakhstan.
The airplane was flying from Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, to Grozny when it turned towards Kazakhstan, a whole bunch of kilometres throughout the Caspian Sea from its supposed vacation spot, and crashed whereas attempting to land. There have been 29 survivors.
Based on a readout of the decision offered by Aliyev’s press workplace, the Azerbaijani president informed Putin that the airplane was topic to “exterior bodily and technical interference,” though he additionally stopped in need of blaming Russian air defences.
Aliyev famous that the airplane had a number of holes in its fuselage and that the occupants had sustained accidents “as a consequence of overseas particles penetrating the cabin mid-flight.”
On Friday, a U.S. official and an Azerbaijani minister made separate statements blaming the crash on an exterior weapon, echoing these made by aviation specialists who blamed the crash on Russian air defence programs responding to a Ukrainian assault.
Passengers and crew who survived the crash informed Azerbaijani media that they heard loud noises on the plane because it was circling over Grozny.
Dmitry Yadrov, head of Russia’s civil aviation authority Rosaviatsia, mentioned on Friday that because the airplane was getting ready to land in Grozny in deep fog, Ukrainian drones have been focusing on the town, prompting authorities to shut the world to air site visitors.
Yadrov mentioned that after the captain made two unsuccessful makes an attempt to land, he was provided different airports however determined to fly to Aktau.
Earlier within the week, Rosaviatsia had cited unspecified early proof as displaying {that a} chook strike led to an emergency on board.
Within the days following the crash, Azerbaijan Airways blamed “bodily and technical interference” and introduced the suspension of flights to a number of Russian airports. It didn’t say the place the interference got here from or present any additional particulars.
On Saturday Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned that, like Putin he too had spoken along with his Azerbaijani counterpart.
Afterwards he posted on X: “Russia should present clear explanations and cease spreading disinformation. Images and movies clearly present the injury to the plane’s fuselage, together with punctures and dents, which strongly level to a strike by an air defencee missile.”
On Thursday, Azerbaijani authorities sources confirmed to Euronews that an preliminary investigation revealed a Russian surface-to-air missile was fired on the airplane because it flew over Chechnya.
