Azerbaijan plane crash: President Aliyev blamed Russia for the accident

Moscow, 29 December

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev claimed on Sunday that Russia had targeted the Azerbaijani airliner that crashed last week. However, President Aliyev said that even though Russia inadvertently targeted the plane, the plane crashed due to an attack by Russia’s air defense system.

Aliyev said on Azerbaijani state television that the plane over Russia had become engulfed in flames rising from the ground and had lost control and crashed. The President said that even though the aircraft was inadvertently attacked by the Russian air defense system, Russia has been trying to ‘hide’ the issue for several days.

38 out of 67 people on board died in this accident on Wednesday. The Kremlin said the air defense system was firing near Grozny, the regional capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya, where the plane tried to land to evade a Ukrainian drone attack.

Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized to his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev on Saturday, calling it a “tragic incident” but refusing to accept responsibility from Moscow for the accident. – Ap