Despite Azerbaijan's repeated demands, the Kremlin refuses to acknowledge responsibility for the accidental shooting down of an Azerbaijani Airlines plane in December, which killed 38 people. The incident occurred over Grozny, Chechnya, where the plane was en route to land. While Russia asserts its air defenses were engaging Ukrainian drones, it avoids directly confirming the plane was targeted.
The Kremlin declined to say Russia n forces accidentally shot at an Azerbaijani plane which crashed last month, despite Baku repeatedly urging it to accept responsibility for the fatal disaster. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has said the Azerbaijani Airlines passenger jet, which crashed in Kazakhstan on December 25, killing 38 people, was shot at'from the ground' over the Russia n city of Grozny where it had been due to land.
Russia has said its air defences were working at the time repelling Ukrainian drones but has stopped short of saying it shot at the plane. Aliyev, a close ally of Moscow, this week repeated that'guilt' lay with Russia and accused it of'concealment' of the real causes. 'We are interested in an absolutely objective and impartial investigation in order to establish the causes of this catastrophe,' Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday. 'We are waiting for the results of the commission,' he added, saying Russian'specialists are giving their full cooperation'.The Kremlin said he had apologised for the fact the incident took place over Russian airspace but its account of the phone calls does not say Putin accepted responsibility.He issued fierce criticism and demanded an apology earlier this week, calling on Moscow to punish those responsible for the'criminal' shooting down of the plane. Aliyev said air defence measures for Grozny - the capital of Russia's Chechnya republic -- were only announced after the plane had been'shot from the ground'. Azerbaijan says the plane was riddled with holes and that preliminary results of its investigation show it was accidentally hit by a Russian air defence missile
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