Shawdesh desk:

Vladimir Putin admitted Saturday Russian air defence was working when an Azerbaijani Airlines plane tried to land in Grozny before crashing, breaking the Kremlin’s silence as speculation mounted Russia may have accidentally shot the plane.

The Russian leader called his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev, apologising the incident took place in Russian airspace, while stopping short of saying Russian air defence shot the plane.

Baku, meanwhile, said Aliyev had ‘emphasised’ to Putin that the plane was hit by outside interference over Russia, saying it wanted those responsible ‘held accountable’.

The phone call between the allies came three days after the Embraer 190 plane flying from Baku to Grozny crashed in Kazakhstan, killing 38 people of 67 onboard.

Western experts have pointed the finger at Russia, while the US said it had ‘early indications’ the plane was shot.

Putin told Aliyev the plane had tried to land in Grozny ‘several times’.

‘During this time, Grozny, Mozdok and Vladikavkaz were being attacked by Ukrainian combat drones and Russian air defence was repelling these attacks,’ Putin said, according to a Kremlin transcript.

It added that Vladimir Putin had presented his apologies that the tragic incident happened in Russia’s air space and again expressed his deep and genuine condolences to the families of the dead, wishing a quick recovery to those affected.

Survivors have told the media about hearing an ‘explosion’ as the plane attempted to land.

Meanwhile, a series of airlines have this week began cancelling flights to Russia after the incident, including national carriers of Moscow’s allies.

Turkmenistan Airlines – the national carrier of the reclusive Central Asian state – was the latest airline to announce cancellations Saturday.

It said that “regular flights between Ashgabat-Moscow-Ashgabat were cancelled from December 30, 2024 to January 31, 2025,’ without giving an explanation.

Kazakhstan’s Qazaq Air has suspended its flights to Russi’’s Urals city of Yekaterinburg until the end of January.

Earlier, Israeli airline El Al said it was suspending its flights to Moscow for a week.