Russian President Vladimir Putin has apologized to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev after an Azerbaijan Airlines plane bound for Russia crashed in Kazakhstan on Christmas Day.
In his first comments since the twist of fate that killed 38 of the other 67 people on board, Putin expressed his condolences but stopped short of blaming Moscow.
Newsweek has contacted the Kremlin and Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry for comment.
Azerbaijan is an ally of Russia and it could be diplomatically difficult for Putin if Moscow was confirmed to be behind the crash.
Anton Barbashin, editorial director of Riddle Russia, an online newspaper on Russian affairs, posted on X on Friday that Azerbaijan is “crucial to Russia’s regional infrastructure ambitions” and that he believes Putin will apologize.
U. S. officials said Moscow was to blame for the plane crash, but Baku had not officially blamed Russia. Azerbaijan said the plane was subject to “external interference” as it attempted to land.
Flight 8243, flying from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, to the Russian city of Grozny, crashed on Wednesday near the Kazakh city of Aktau, killing at least 38 people.
“Vladimir Putin 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 in a statement.
The Kremlin said that as the plane tried to land in Grozny, the capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya, Ukrainian drones were wearing down the attacks.
“During this time, Grozny, [and the cities of] Mozdok and Vladikavkaz were being attacked by Ukrainian combat drones and Russian air defense was repelling these attacks,” the Kremlin said Putin told Aliyev, without saying that Russian air defenses hit the plane.
Azerbaijan’s presidency said in a statement that Aliyev, under pressure, found that the plane encountered “external physical and technical interference while in Russian airspace, resulting in a complete loss of control. “
Multiple holes in the plane’s fuselage, injuries to passengers and equipment due to strange debris that entered the cockpit mid-flight, and survivor testimonies “confirm evidence of external physical and technical interference,” Array said in the news release.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky posted in X that he had also expressed his condolences to Aliyev and called for “a thorough investigation. “He said Russia “must give transparent explanations and prevent the spread of disinformation. “
The Kremlin said in its statement: “Vladimir Putin apologized for the tragic incident that occurred in Russian airspace.”
Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky said in X: “The most sensible priority now is a thorough investigation that provides answers to all questions about what happened. “
Azerbaijan’s presidency said: “President Ilham Aliyev, under pressure, said that the Azerbaijan Airlines passenger plane encountered external physical and technical interference while in Russian airspace, resulting in a complete loss of Array »
Janis Kluge, deputy head of the Eastern Europe & Eurasia Division at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs posted on X: “Fascinating: Putin apologizes to Ilham Aliyev…he didn’t publicly admit it was a Russian missile, but the apology is as close as Moscow will get to admitting anything.”
Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan are at the scene of the crisis in the Aktau region. Moscow said Russian investigators had opened an investigation into criminals and Baku had already announced it would publish its own investigation.
Kaja Kallas, EU foreign affairs chief, the incident of the 2014 crash by Russian-backed forces in eastern Ukraine of MH17, a Malaysia Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.
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Update 12/28/24, 10.36 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with further information.
Brendan Cole is a Newsweek Senior News Reporter based in London, UK. His focus is Russia and Ukraine, in particular the war started by Moscow. He also covers other areas of geopolitics including China. Brendan joined Newsweek in 2018 from the International Business Times and well as English, knows Russian and French. You can get in touch with Brendan by emailing [email protected] or follow on him on his X account @brendanmarkcole.