Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said on Sunday that Russia unintentionally shot down the jetliner which crashed in Kazakhstan and killed 38 people. “We can say with complete clarity that the plane was shot down by Russia,” Aliyev told Azerbaijani state media. “We are not saying that it was done intentionally, but it was done.”
The plane entered Russian airspace on Dec. 25. It tried to divert its course to land in Grozny, the capital of Russia’s Chechen Republic, but was unsuccessful. The plane crashed in Aktau, Kazakhstan, resulting in the deaths of at least 38 of the plane’s 67 passengers.
Following the crash, the Kremlin press office confirmed in a statement on Saturday that Russia’s air defense systems were active when the plane attempted to land in Grozny. Aliyev gave a preliminary assessment of the crash, saying it was caused after the plane was hit by Russian fire from the ground and “rendered uncontrollable by electronic warfare.” (More)