President Vladimir Putin on Saturday apologized to Azerbaijan’s leader for the “tragic incident” involving an Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crash-landed in Kazakhstan. The plane had been en route from Baku to the Chechen capital Grozny, but was shot down by Russian air defences that mistakenly believed it was an incoming Ukrainian drone.
According to preliminary findings by Azerbaijan’s investigation, the airliner was accidentally hit by a Russian missile defence system, and at least 38 people were killed in the crash. Four sources with knowledge of the findings told Reuters that Russian air defences had been fired against the plane, sparking a loud bang that was heard by passengers before the aircraft made an emergency landing in Kazakhstan.
Putin’s public apology to President Ilham Aliyev marks the closest Russia has come to accepting blame for the incident. In a Kremlin statement, Putin expressed his deepest condolences to the families of the victims and injured, and emphasized that at the time of the incident, Ukraine was launching drones against several cities in southern Russia, and that Russian air defense systems had responded to repel the attacks.
The incident is the latest high-profile air tragedy to hit Russian airspace, which has seen two major disasters involving commercial airliners in the past decade. The 2020 downing of a Ukrainian plane by Iranian Revolution Guards, and the 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 by a Russian BUK missile system, remain major incidents for international aviation and Russia.
International leaders have spoken out about the incident, with US President Joe Biden responding that Putin had apologised, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has called for a clear explanation of the incident from Russia. MSNBC cited two U.S. military sources saying there was intelligence indicating that Russia had mistakenly shot down the airliner, mistaking it for a drone. The White House also stated that they had seen indications suggesting the plane was brought down by Russian air defense systems.
Azerbaijani officials, meanwhile, released footage shot by passengers showing the oxygen masks activating and people donning life jackets, while also citing testimonies from survivors describing objects piercing the plane’s fuselage. Despite the investigation’s preliminary findings, the Kremlin insisted that a final verdict on the incident should not be drawn before the conclusion of the official investigations.
