Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday admitted for the first time his country played a role in the 2024 crash of an Azerbaijani passenger plane, describing it as a "tragedy".
In a meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Putin said Russia had deployed missiles to destroy Ukrainian drones on the morning of the incident, and that they exploded "a few meters away" from the aircraft.
"Russia will do everything necessary in such tragic cases to provide compensation, and the actions of all officials will be legally assessed," he said.
The Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 jet crash-landed in Kazakhstan on December 25, killing 38 of the 67 people on board, after being diverted from a scheduled landing in the southern Russian city of Grozny.
Azerbaijan's president at that time said that Russia was "guilty" over the downing of the airline that Baku says was shot by Russian air defences
Putin is currently in a visit to meet Central Asian leaders in Tajikistan, the only second such summit since the fall of the Soviet Union, as Moscow jostles with China and Europe for influence.
Weakened by the war in Ukraine, Russia's historic grip over the region has waned in recent years. – AFP/RSS
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