Putin apologises for 'tragic incident' but doesn't admit blame for Azerbaijan plane crash

A Kremlin statement said air defence systems were firing near Grozny on Wednesday, but stopped short of saying one of these hit the plane.

Transcript

00:00Russia's President Vladimir Putin has called Ilyam Aliyev, the President of Azerbaijan,

00:06to apologize for what he called a tragic incident that took place in Russian airspace.

00:12On Wednesday, an Azeri plane was allegedly hit by air defense missiles near Grozny and

00:16later crashed in Kazakhstan.

00:19Putin now said the Russian air defense systems had repelled an attack by Ukraine at the time

00:24of the incident.

00:26Several Azerbaijani survivors say they heard explosions before the crash.

00:30It was a two-time crash, between five and five minutes.

00:36After that, it flew for an hour and a half.

00:40But I don't know where it flew.

00:43After that, Samoyed fell down.

00:48That's why everyone got up.

00:52Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted on X that he too spoke to Aliyev and is urging

00:58a thorough investigation into what really happened.