File photo.
International Desk //

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has said that Russia shot down the Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed in Kazakhstan. He called the Russian attack on the accident unintentional. However, Ilham accused Moscow of trying to cover up the matter day after day.

Deutsche Welle reported this in a report.

Flight J2-8243 was flying from the Azerbaijani capital Baku to Grozny, the capital of neighboring Russia’s southern Chechen Republic, on Wednesday. There were 67 passengers and crew on board the plane. At least 38 people were killed in the crash.

A day later, four sources familiar with the initial results of the Azerbaijani investigation told Reuters that Russian air defense systems mistook it for a Ukrainian drone and hit it.

“We can clearly say that the plane was shot down by Russian fire,” Aliyev told Azerbaijani state television on Sunday (December 29).

Aliyev said the plane that crashed in Kazakhstan on Wednesday was shot down from Russian territory and the plane was rendered uncontrollable by electronic warfare.

Aliyev has accused Russia of trying to cover up the incident for days, and said he was surprised and disappointed by the various explanations presented by Russian officials.

“Unfortunately, for the first three days we have heard nothing but confusing explanations from Russia,” he said.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized for the “tragic incident” of the plane crash last Saturday. The Kremlin said in a statement that the passenger plane was shot down by mistake while trying to repel a Ukrainian drone attack. However, Russian authorities initially warned against the allegations.

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