Russian President Vladimir Putin has apologized to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev after a passenger plane crashed in Kazakhstan, killing 38 people.
According to the Kremlin, Putin apologized over a phone call, saying he was sorry “that the tragic event occurred in the airspace of Russia”.
Moscow also linked the crash to the Ukraine war, claiming that Ukrainian drones had attacked the city of Grozny while the Azerbaijani plane was trying to land there. The Kremlin said it was working closely with Azerbaijani and Kazakh authorities to investigate the incident.
The plane, with the flight number 8243, was en route from Baku in Azerbaijan to Grozny in Russia but was unable to land due to thick fog and was initially diverted to Machachkala in Russia and then to Aqtau in Kazakhstan, where it crashed just minutes before the planned landing.