The Kremlin press service reported that a telephone conversation took place between Vladimir Putin and the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, at the initiative of the Russian side.
«Vladimir Putin apologized for the tragic incident that occurred in Russian airspace, and once again expressed deep and sincere condolences to the families of the victims, wishing a speedy recovery to the injured», the statement said.
Putin acknowledged that the Azerbaijani passenger aircraft repeatedly attempted to land at the airport of Grozny, but at that time «Grozny, Mozdok, and Vladikavkaz were attacked by Ukrainian combat drones, and Russian air defense systems were repelling these attacks». Putin remained silent on the causes of the air crash itself.
Meanwhile, after the crash of the Azerbaijan Airlines plane in Aktau, five foreign airlines canceled at least 95 flights to and from Russian cities, calculated «Verstka»*.
The most flights were canceled by Azerbaijan Airlines, which suspended flights from Baku to Grozny and Makhachkala from December 25, and to Mineralnye Vody, Sochi, Volgograd, Ufa, Samara, Nizhny Novgorod, Vladikavkaz, and Saratov from December 28.
FlyDubai announced the suspension of flights from Dubai to Sochi and Mineralnye Vody from December 28 to January 5.
The Israeli company «El Al» announced on December 26 the suspension of flights from Tel Aviv to Moscow «for the coming week». According to Flightradar, five «El Al» flights to Moscow and the same number from Moscow to Tel Aviv were scheduled from December 26 to January 2.
Kazakhstan's airline Qazaq Air suspended flights from Astana to Yekaterinburg from December 28 to January 27.
The airline «Turkmenistan Airlines» announced a temporary suspension of flights on the Ashgabat — Moscow — Ashgabat route from December 30 to January 31.
Azerbaijani government sources confirmed to Euronews on Thursday that a Russian surface-to-air missile caused the crash of the Azerbaijan Airlines plane in Kazakhstan's Aktau on Wednesday, killing 38 people. Preliminary investigation data confirmed that the tragedy was caused by a Russian missile over Grozny.
The US saw «initial signs» that the plane might have been shot down by Russian air defenses, said White House Strategic Communications Coordinator John Kirby on Friday.
* Recognized in Russia as a «foreign agent».
Photo: AFP