Russian President Putin Apologizes For Azerbaijani Plane Crash

Putin apologized to the Azerbaijan president "for the fact that the tragic incident occurred in Russian airspace.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized to his Azerbaijani counter-part following the crash of an Azerbaijani Airliner in Kazakhstan.

The incident resulted in the death of 38 people and left several people injured and-or in critical condition.

Putin apologized to the Azerbaijan president “for the fact that the tragic incident occurred in Russian airspace.”

The apology comes as allegations spread claiming the plane had been shot down by Russian air defenses attempting to deflect a Ukrainian drone strike near Grozny.

However, an official Kremlin statement said that air defense systems were firing near the Grozny airport as the airliner “repeatedly” attempted to land there on Wednesday. But it did not explicitly say one of these hit the plane.

Russia has launched a criminal probe into the incident as Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan are jointly investigating the crash site.

Though Putin apologized for the incident occurring in Russian airspace, he did not claim responsibility for the accident.