ReutersAzerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has known as on Russia to simply accept blame for the Christmas Day aircraft crash that killed 38 individuals.
The aircraft is believed to have come below hearth from Russian air protection programs because it tried to land in Chechnya earlier than being diverted to Kazakhstan, the place it crashed.
Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized to the Azerbaijani president on Saturday for the downing of the aircraft in Russian airspace, however didn’t take duty.
Aliyev accused Moscow of initially “overlaying up” its involvement within the incident. While accepting Putin’s apology, he mentioned Russia “should admit its guilt” and pay compensation.
The Azerbaijan Airlines aircraft was touring from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, to the Chechen capital of Grozny on December 25 when it’s believed to have come below hearth.
Flight J2-8243 was pressured to divert from Chechnya and crashed close to Aktau, Kazakhstan, killing 38 of 67 on board.
Most of the passengers on the flight had been from Azerbaijan, others from Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
Aviation specialists and others consider the aircraft’s GPS was compromised by digital jamming and was then broken by shrapnel from Russian air protection missiles.
But Aliyev mentioned that, within the days after the incident, “Russian businesses offered variations (of occasions) of the explosion of some gasoline cylinders” that “clearly exhibit that the Russian aspect needs to cowl up the matter,” based on a transcript of an interview with state media.
He additionally mentioned some in Russia had clung to the speculation that the aircraft had been hit by birds. Aliyev described each theories as “foolish and dishonest”.
The president of Azerbaijan admitted that the aircraft was shot down unintentionally, however mentioned that within the first three days after the crash “we heard solely absurd variations from Russia.”
Baku made a sequence of calls for to Moscow on Friday over the incident, he mentioned, solely one in all which – an apology – has thus far been met.
On Saturday, Putin mentioned the “tragic incident” occurred when Russian air protection programs had been repelling Ukrainian drones, and expressed his “deep and honest condolences to the households of the victims.”
The Russian president acknowledged that the aircraft had repeatedly tried to land at Grozny airport in Chechnya.
However, at the moment the cities of Grozny, Mozdok and Vladikavkaz “had been attacked by Ukrainian unmanned aerial automobiles, and Russian air protection programs repelled these assaults,” Putin mentioned.
Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky mentioned that Russia should “cease spreading disinformation” and that the injury to the aircraft’s fuselage was “very harking back to an air protection missile assault.”
Kremlin knowledge didn’t immediately admit that the aircraft had been hit by Russian missiles.
Aliyev mentioned Baku known as on Russia to “admit its guilt”, punish the responsible and pay compensation to Azerbaijan and the survivors injured within the crash.
Azerbaijan and Russia are allies. The president of Azerbaijan mentioned: “No one would have thought that in our pleasant nation, our aircraft could be hit from the bottom.”
His remarks got here as Azerbaijan paid tribute to the pilots and passengers of the downed aircraft.
Three crew members – Captain Igor Kshnyakin, co-pilot Alezander Kalayaninov and flight attendant Hokuma Aliyeva – obtained honors for touchdown the aircraft in a manner that allowed 29 individuals to outlive, though this prompted led to their demise.
