Putin apologizes for the "tragic incident" with the Azerbaijan Airlines plane
The Russian president admitted to his Azerbaijani counterpart that Russia's anti-aircraft system was active at the time of the crash.
Images distributed by the authorities after the plane crash.
Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted Saturday that the Russian anti-aircraft system was active on Wednesday when an Azerbaijani plane attempted to land, before crashing in Kazakhstan, according to the Kremlin.
The Russian president spoke by telephone with his Azerbaijani counterpart, Ilham Aliev, and said that "the plane tried to land at Grozny airport. At that very moment, the cities of Grozny, Mozdok and Vladikavkaz were under attack by Ukrainian fighter drones, and the Russian air defense system repelled the attacks." The Russian president did not indicate whether the aircraft was reached by Russian missiles.
As the Azerbaijani president told Putin, the plane was hit by "an external physical interference."
"The head of state stressed that multiple holes in the plane's fuselage, injuries sustained by passengers and crew (...) and testimonies (...) confirm the evidence of external physical and technical interference," the presidency said in a statement.
Since the Christmas Day incident, suspicions pointed to the fact that Russia may have shot down the plane.
Despite Putin's failure to acknowledge his country's responsibility, the Russian president apologized to Aliev on Saturday.
"Vladimir Putin apologized for the fact that this tragic incident took place in Russian airspace," the Kremlin said.
Earlier, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had refused to comment on the White House statements about missile fire from the Russian anti-aircraft system. Along with these claims, several experts considered that images of the fuselage show holes that are normally caused by such missiles.
The European Union calls for an independent investigation
EU Vice President Kaja Kallas reiterated on Saturday the need to launch an independent international investigation; "I call for a swift, independent international investigation." the European official posted on X.
Kallas sees this incident as a "stark reminder" of Malasyian Airlines Flight MH17, shot down by a missile launched by Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine in 2014.
The Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 aircraft, with 67 people on board, was on a flight Wednesday from Baku, capital of Azerbaijan, to Grozny, capital of the republic of Chechnya, on Russian territory. Kazakh authorities reported 38 dead.
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