Days after an Azerbaijan Airlines plane crashed in Kazakhstan resulting in the loss of 38 lives, the Kremlin on Saturday accepted that Russian air defence forces were repelling a series of Ukrainian drone attacks as the aircraft was attempting to land in Grozny in Russia.
“The Azerbaijani passenger aircraft, which was travelling according to its schedule, repeatedly tried to land at Grozny airport. At that time, Grozny, Mozdok and Vladikavkaz were being attacked by Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles, and Russian air defense systems repelled these attacks,” the Kremlin said.
The Embraer (EMBR3.SA), passenger jet had flown from Azerbaijan’s capital Baku to Grozny on Christmas Day, in Russia’s southern Chechnya region, before veering off hundreds of miles across the Caspian Sea in a ball of fire near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan.
Russian President Vladimir Putin also apologised to Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan, on Saturday for what the Kremlin said was a “tragic incident” in Russian airspace.
“(President) Vladimir Putin apologised for the tragic incident that occurred in Russian airspace and once again expressed his deep and sincere condolences to the families of the victims and wished a speedy recovery to the injured,” the Kremlin said in a statement.
This is the first time Kremlin responded on the crash, which Ukrainian and US officials were long designating to it.
On Friday, White House spokesperson John Kirby told reporters that the US had seen “early indications” that the plane may have been downed by Russian air defence, but declined to comment further.
Бъдете първият, отговорил на тази Генерална дискусия .
