BBCRussia’s President Vladimir Putin has apologised to the president of neighbouring Azerbaijan for the downing of a commercial airliner in Russian airspace, in which 38 people were killed – but stopped short of saying Russia was responsible.
In his first comments on the Christmas day crash, Putin said the “tragic incident” had occurred when Russian air defence systems were actively repelling Ukrainian drones.
It had been reported the plane came under fire from Russian air defence systems as it tried to land in Chechnya – forcing it to divert across the Caspian Sea.
It crash-landed in Kazakhstan, killing 38 of the 67 on board.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version.
You can receive Breaking News on a smartphone or tablet via the BBC News App. You can also follow @BBCBreaking on X to get the latest alerts.
Leave a Reply