Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized on Saturday to the Azerbaijani president for what he referred to as a “tragic incident” after an Azerbaijani airliner crashed in Kazakhstan, resulting in 38 fatalities.
The plane, en route from Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, to Grozny, the capital of Russia’s Chechen Republic, veered toward Kazakhstan and crashed during a landing attempt on Wednesday. Out of those on board, 29 people survived.
In a statement issued Saturday, the Kremlin acknowledged that air defense systems were active near Grozny on Wednesday in response to a Ukrainian drone strike but did not confirm whether these defenses were involved in the crash.
However, on Friday, both a U.S. official and an Azerbaijani minister issued separate statements attributing the crash to an external weapon.
