BarcelonaRussian President Vladimir Putin has apologized to Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev for the Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, killing 38 people. Putin has spoken on the phone with Aliyev, and it was the first time he referred to the disaster. However, Russia’s responsibility has not been acknowledged.
In particular, the Russian president has declared that “the tragic incident” took place when the Russian air defense systems were dealing with an attack by Ukrainian drones. “At that time, (the cities of) Grozny, Mozdok and Vladikavkaz were being attacked by Ukrainian combat drones and the Russian air defense was repelling these attacks,” according to Kremlin sources. Putin, however, has not acknowledged that Russian defenses brought down the plane.
Accusations that held Russia responsible for the disaster were increasingly numerous. Several sources in Azerbaijan close to the investigation had already reached the conclusion that the plane was hit by a Russian anti-aircraft missile. Ukraine had also pointed in this direction, and the United States also considered that there were indications in this direction. The accident caused the death of 38 people, while 29 of the passengers survived, according to official sources.
In fact, the President of Azerbaijan has insisted on this fact during his telephone conversation with Putin. He stressed that the Azerbaijan Airlines passenger plane encountered external physical and technical interference while in Russian airspace, which caused it to lose control. “The multiple holes in the airframe, the injuries sustained by passengers and crew due to foreign particles entering the cabin during the flight, and the testimony of flight attendants and surviving passengers confirm evidence of physical interference and external techniques”, he also affirmed.
The crashed plane, an Embraer 190, suffered the accident while covering the route between Baku and the Russian city of Grozny. According to the crisis cabinet, the crew sent a distress signal at 08:35 local time (03:35 GMT) on Wednesday, reporting an error in the control system. An hour later, the aircraft requested an emergency landing at the Kazakh airport of Akhtau, in the west of the country.
Initially, among the main official hypotheses was the possibility that the device had collided with a flock of birds, as stated by the Federal Air Transport Agency of Russia. But a video showing damage to the plane’s fuselage similar to that caused by an anti-aircraft missile was circulated on Azerbaijani and Russian social media, raising initial suspicions.
The Russian regions of Chechnya and Dagestan in the Caucasus have been targeted by Ukrainian drone strikes on several occasions this month, triggering Russian air defenses, according to air security firm Osprey Flight Solutions.
Source: www.ara.cat
