Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized to Azerbaijan's leader for the crash of an Azerbaijani Airlines plane in Russia, which killed at least 38 people. While the Kremlin stopped short of accepting full responsibility, Putin expressed condolences and acknowledged that Russian air defenses were engaged against Ukrainian drones at the time of the incident.
MOSCOW/BAKU (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin on Saturday apologized to Azerbaijan 's leader for what the Kremlin called a 'tragic incident' over Russia in which an Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash ed after Russia n air defenses were fired against Ukrainian drones.
The extremely rare publicized apology from Putin was the closest Moscow had come to accepting some blame for Wednesday's disaster, although the Kremlin statement did not say Russia had shot down the plane, only noting that a criminal case had been opened. Flight J2-8243, en route from Baku to the Chechen capital Grozny, crash-landed on Wednesday near 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 told Reuters on Thursday that Russian air defenses had mistakenly shot the airliner down. Passengers said they heard a loud bang outside the plane. Putin called President Ilham Aliyev and apologized 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. 'At that time, Grozny, Mozdok and Vladikavkaz were being attacked by Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles, and Russian air defense systems repelled these attacks.'Putin also phoned Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, his counterpart in Kazakhstan, to express his condolences over the loss of life in the crash, the Kremlin said. On Saturday, U.S. President Joe Biden responded to a shouted question about whether Putin should take responsibility for the crash while he was leaving church in St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where he is on vacation
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