Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said on Sunday that a passenger plane that crashed last week, killing 38 people, had been damaged by accidental shooting from the ground in Russia, adding that some in Russia had lied about the cause of the disaster.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday apologized to Aliyev for Wednesday's "tragic incident" in Russian airspace involving Azerbaijan Airlines Flight J2-8243 after Russian air defenses engaged Ukrainian attack drones.
A Kremlin statement did not say Russia had shot down the plane, only noting a criminal case had been opened.
"Our plane was shot down by accident," Aliyev said on state television on Sunday, adding that the plane had come under some sort of electronic jamming and had then been shot at while it was approaching the southern Russian city of Grozny.
The pilots, who died in the crash, have been lauded in Azerbaijan for a landing that allowed 29 people to survive.
"Unfortunately, in the first three days we heard only absurd versions from Russia," Aliyev said, citing statements in Russia that attributed the crash to bird strike or the explosion of some sort of gas cylinder.
"We witnessed clear attempts to cover up the matter," said the Azerbaijani leader, who has close ties to Russia and was educated at one of Moscow's top universities.
Aliyev said he wanted Russia to accept it was guilty of downing the plane and to punish those responsible.
Putin and Aliyev held another telephone call on Sunday, the Kremlin said. It gave no details but on Saturday it said that both civilian and military specialists were being questioned about what had taken place.
The chief of Russia's Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, on a phone call assured Azerbaijan's Prosecutor General that Moscow had assigned the investigation to the most experienced experts and that actions were being taken to establish the cause and circumstances of the incident.
The plane crashed on Wednesday near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan after diverting from southern Russia where Ukrainian drones were attacking several cities at the time, according to the Kremlin.
The extremely rare publicized apology from Putin on Saturday is the closest Moscow has come to accepting some blame for the disaster.
Four sources with knowledge of the preliminary findings of Azerbaijan's investigation into the disaster told Reuters on Thursday that Russian air defenses had mistakenly shot it down.
BURIALS
Azerbaijan on Sunday paid tribute to the pilots and passengers of the plane.
Captain Igor Kshnyakin and co-pilot Alexander Kalyaninov, both ethnic Russians with Azerbaijan citizenship, and Hokuma Aliyeva, a flight attendant, were given full honors at a ceremony at the Alley of Honor in central Baku attended by Aliyev and his wife, Mehriban.
"The pilots were experienced and knew they would not survive this crash landing," Aliyev said, praising them for sacrificing themselves.
"In order to save the passengers, they acted with great heroism and as a result of this, there were survivors," he said.
Aliyev awarded the crew posthumously with the titles of National Hero of Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan's President Says Crashed Plane Was Shot at from Russia
People attend the funeral of Captain Igor Kshnyakin, co-pilot Alexander Kalyaninov and flight attendant Hokuma Aliyeva, crew members of Azerbaijan Airlines Flight J2-8243 that crashed near the Kazakh city of Aktau, in Baku, Azerbaijan December 29, 2024. REUTERS/Aziz Karimov
Azerbaijan's President Says Crashed Plane Was Shot at from Russia
People attend the funeral of Captain Igor Kshnyakin, co-pilot Alexander Kalyaninov and flight attendant Hokuma Aliyeva, crew members of Azerbaijan Airlines Flight J2-8243 that crashed near the Kazakh city of Aktau, in Baku, Azerbaijan December 29, 2024. REUTERS/Aziz Karimov
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