Vladimir Putin has said that Russia’s air defences were to blame for downing an Azerbaijani jetliner in December that killed 38 people, his first admission of responsibility for the crash.
Putin said on Thursday that the missiles fired by Russia to target a Ukrainian drone exploded near the Azerbaijan Airlines plane flying from Baku as it was preparing to land in Grozny, the regional capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya, on 25 December 2024. Ukrainian drones have regularly struck deep inside Russia.
Speaking at a meeting with Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev in Tajikistan’s capital of Dushanbe, where both were attending a summit of the former Soviet nations, Putin pledged to punish those responsible and provide compensation.
Azerbaijani authorities had said the Embraer 190…more
Source www.theguardian.com
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