ReutersAzerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev has known as on Russia to just accept blame for a aircraft crash on Christmas Day that killed 38 folks.
The aircraft is assumed to have come underneath hearth from Russian air defence methods because it tried to land in Chechnya earlier than being diverted to Kazakhstan, the place it crashed.
On Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin apologised to the Azerbaijani president over the downing of the aircraft in Russian airspace – however stopped in need of taking accountability.
Aliyev accused Moscow of an preliminary “cowl up” over its involvement within the crash. Whereas accepting Putin’s apology, he stated Russia “should admit its guilt” and pay compensation.
The Azerbaijan Airways aircraft had been en route from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, to the Chechen capital of Grozny on 25 December when it’s thought to have come underneath hearth.
Flight J2-8243 was compelled to divert from Chechnya and crashed close to Aktau, in Kazakhstan, killing 38 of the 67 onboard.
A lot of the passengers on the flight have been from Azerbaijan, with others from Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
Aviation specialists and others consider the aircraft’s GPS was affected by digital jamming and it was then broken by shrapnel from Russian air-defence missile blasts.
However Aliyev stated that, within the days following the incident, “Russian businesses put ahead variations [of events] in regards to the explosion of some gasoline cylinder” which “clearly confirmed that the Russian aspect desires to cowl up the difficulty”, in line with a transcript of an interview with state media.
He additionally stated that some in Russia had latched on to a concept that the aircraft had been hit by birds. Aliyev described each theories as “silly and dishonest”.
The Azerbaijani president accepted that the aircraft had been shot down unintentionally, however stated that within the first three days following the crash, “we heard solely absurd variations from Russia”.
Baku made a sequence of calls for to Moscow on Friday over the incident, he stated, solely one in every of which – an apology – had up to now been met.
On Saturday, Putin stated the “tragic incident” had occurred when Russian air defence methods have 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.
Nonetheless, on the time the cities of Grozny, Mozdok and Vladikavkaz have been “being attacked by Ukrainian unmanned aerial autos, and Russian air defence methods repelled these assaults”, Putin stated.
Ukraine’s President Volodymr Zelensky stated Russia should “cease spreading disinformation” and that the harm to the plane’s fuselage was “very harking back to an air defence missile strike”.
The Kremlin read-out made no direct admission that the aircraft had been struck by Russian missiles.
Aliyev stated Baku had demanded Russia “admit its guilt”, punish these at fault, and pay compensation to Azerbaijan and the injured survivors of the crash.
Azerbaijan and Russia are allies. The Azerbaijani president stated: “Nobody would have thought that in a rustic that’s pleasant to us, our aircraft can be fired at from the bottom.”
His remarks got here as Azerbaijan paid tributes to the pilots and passengers of the downed aircraft.
Three crew members – Captain Igor Kshnyakin, co-pilot Alezander Kalayaninov and flight attendant Hokuma Aliyeva – got distinguished honours for touchdown the aircraft in a means that allowed 29 folks to outlive, despite the fact that it led to their very own deaths.