Vladimir Putin apologised to Azerbaijan’s president for a “tragic incident” involving an Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed after air defences were used against Ukrainian drones.
On Saturday, Russian President Putin apologized to his Azerbaijani counterpart for what he called a “tragic incident” following the crash of an Azerbaijani Airlines Embraer 190 aircraft in Kazakhstan.
In a telephone conversation with the Azerbaijani president, Putin “apologized for the fact that the tragic incident occurred in Russian airspace and once again expressed his deepest and most sincere condolences to the families of the victims and wished a speedy recovery to the injured.”
Flight J28243 crashed on Wednesday near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan after diverting from southern Russia where Ukrainian drones were reported to be attacking several cities.
At least 38 people were killed. Four sources with knowledge of the preliminary findings of Azerbaijan’s investigation into the disaster told Reuters on Thursday that Russian air defences had mistakenly shot it down.
