Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Minister of Emergency Situations Alexander Kurenkov at the Kremlin on December 27
The call between President Putin and his counterpart Aliyev was made by the Kremlin in the context of many speculations about the possibility that Russian air defenses may have mistakenly shot down a flight carrying 67 people departing from Azerbaijan to the Russian Chechen Republic today. 12.25.
The Azerbaijani Airlines plane from the capital Baku arrived in Grozny but did not land and instead diverted to Kazakhstan before crashing near the city of Aktau, killing 38 people on board and 29 survivors.
During the phone call, Mr. Putin told Mr. Aliyev that the plane “several times” tried to land in Grozny, and that at that time Grozny was facing an attack by Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and Russian forces. Russian air defense is repelling those attacks, according to TASS.
TASS quoted a statement from the Kremlin press office saying that President Vladimir Putin apologized for the plane having encountered an incident while in Russian airspace, and once again sent his sincerest and deepest condolences to the families. families of the victims of the plane crash, and wish the injured a speedy recovery.
The Kremlin also said the two leaders discussed in detail questions surrounding the plane crash, and Russia continued to cooperate closely with Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan on the incident.
Statements from Azerbaijani officials show that the Baku government believes the plane was attacked in the air, according to AFP.
Following the Kremlin’s above announcement, Ms. Kaja Kallas, High Representative of the European Union (EU) for foreign and security policy, called for a quick, independent investigation to find out what happened. happened to the Azerbaijani Airlines flight on December 25.
