Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev said on Sunday that the Azerbaijani plane that crashed last week had been shot down by Russia, albeit unintentionally, and criticized Moscow for “hugging up” the issue for days.
“We can say with complete clarity that the plane was shot down by Russia. (…) We are not saying it was done deliberately, but it happened,” he told Azerbaijani state television.
Aliyev said the plane, which crashed in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, was hit by fire from the ground over Russia and “went out of control due to electronic warfare.” Aliyev accused Russia of “silencing” the issue for several days and said he was “angered and surprised” by versions of events put forward by Russian officials.
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“Unfortunately, we heard nothing from Russia in the first three days, except frenzied versions,” he said.
The crash killed 38 of the 67 people on board. The Kremlin said air defense systems fired near Grozny, the regional capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya, where the plane tried to land, to repel a Ukrainian drone attack.
Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized to Aliyev on Saturday for what he called a “tragic incident” but did not acknowledge Moscow’s responsibility.
The Kremlin also said a joint investigation by Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan has begun at the crash site near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan. The plane was flying from Azerbaijan’s capital Baku to Grozny as it turned towards Kazakhstan, hundreds of kilometers across the Caspian Sea from its intended destination, and crashed while attempting to land.
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Associated Press writer Aida Sultanova in London contributed to this report.
