Russia\u2019s President Vladimir Putin has apologized for the fact that an Azerbaijan Airlines flight crashed after entering Russian airspace in Grozny, Chechnya on Wednesday, but did not say that Russia was responsible. <\/p>\n
Putin said Saturday that Russia\u2019s air defense systems were active when the plane attempted to land in Grozny, according to the Kremlin. Unable to reach the airport, the aircraft diverted east, eventually crashing near Aktau, Kazakhstan, killing 38 people on board. <\/p>\n
People from Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan were on board the plane. Among the survivors were two children. <\/p>\n
Putin \u201capologized for the fact that the tragic incident occurred in Russian airspace\u201d in a phone call with Azerbaijan\u2019s President Ilham Aliyev, the Kremlin said in a statement. <\/p>\n
The Kremlin said that the plane \u201crepeatedly attempted to land at the airport in Grozny\u201d but at the same time, the areas of \u201cGrozny, Mozdok and Vladikavkaz were attacked by Ukrainian combat drones, and Russian air defense systems repelled these attacks.\u201d <\/p>\n
Russia\u2019s investigative committee has opened a criminal case in relation to the disaster, the statement said. <\/p>\n
Video and images of the plane after it crashed show perforations in its body that look similar to damage from shrapnel or debris. The cause of these holes has not been confirmed. <\/p>\n
Azerbaijan\u2019s Aliyev told Putin that the plane \u201cencountered external physical and technical interference while in Russian airspace, resulting in a complete loss of control,\u201d according to an official presidential statement about Saturday\u2019s call. <\/p>\n
Aliyev said that Azerbaija\ufeffni authorities had examined holes in the plane\u2019s fuselage, reviewed passenger and crew members\u2019 injuries from \u201cforeign particles penetrating the cabin mid-flight\u201d and heard survivors\u2019 testimonies. <\/p>\n
Ukraine\u2019s President Volodymyr Zelensky said on X that he also spoke to Aliyev on Saturday, and conveyed his condolences regarding the \u201ctragic crash.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cRussia must provide clear explanations and stop spreading disinformation. Photos and videos clearly show the damage to the aircraft\u2019s fuselage, including punctures and dents, which strongly point to a strike by an air defense missile,\u201d Zelensky said. <\/p>\n
At least five airlines have temporarily suspended flights to areas in Russia since the disaster, including Azerbaijan Airlines, Turkmenistan Airlines, El Al Israel, Flydubai and Qazaq Air. <\/p>\n
Most of those airlines cited safety concerns when announcing the suspensions. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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Russia\u2019s President Vladimir Putin has apologized for the fact that an Azerbaijan Airlines flight crashed after entering Russian airspace in Grozny, Chechnya on Wednesday, but did not say that Russia was responsible. Putin said Saturday that Russia\u2019s air defense systems were active when the plane attempted to land in Grozny, according to the Kremlin. Unable <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11436,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11435","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}