Vladimir Putin apologises to president of Azerbaijan following plane crash, doesn’t admit to shooting of plane. Credit: RTDownUnder, Twitter
Amidst the beckoning aftermath of a terrible tragedy where 38 lives were lost, Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent his personal condolences to Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan, after the Azerbaijan Airlines flight J2-8243 crashed in Kazakhstan, following its sudden diversion from Grozny, Russia.
In a rare circumstance, Putin publicly and formally sent his best wishes to all those affected by this disaster, as the Kremlin state: “He apologised for the tragic incident that occurred in Russian airspace and once again expressed his deep and sincere condolences to the families and victims, wishing a speedy recovery to the injured”.
This is about as close as humanity will get to justice from this incident, until official investigations are complete, with Putin often abstaining from introspective actions in such matters. Putin went on to claim that “at the time, [Russian cities] Grozny, Mozdok and Vladikavkaz were being attacked by Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles and Russian air defence systems repelled these attacks”.
Neither Russian military forces, nor Putin, have indicated that any of their defence weaponry had fired at and struck the Azerbaijani plane as it flew into Russia’s Chechnya region. However, with some intriguing marks sprayed across the plane body, and many passengers claiming to have heard a ‘loud bang’ coming from outside the ultra-safe Embraer jet as the disaster commenced, many questions and doubts remain over the integrity of the reports thus far.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy gave an outcry on popular platform ‘X’, that Russia must provide ‘clear explanations’, as the Kremlin insists that a criminal case has been opened and “civilian and military specialists were being questioned”. Pressure has mounted further as fresh reports from the preliminary investigations conducted by Azerbaijan Airlines stated the plane experienced ‘external, physical and technical interference’.
And with four verified sources with knowledge of other elements of these findings inciting that Russian air defences had indeed mistakenly shot the airliner down, now is the only time Putin can properly come clean for the actions of his forces, before it is too late.
Catch up on the full insight from this story across our website, here.
