By Quirinale.it,
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev has urged Russia to just accept blame for an aircraft crash on Christmas Day that killed 38 people.
The aircraft is thought to have come below hearthplace from Russian air defense structures because it attempted to land in Chechnya earlier than being diverted to Kazakhstan, in which it crashed.
On Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized to the Azerbaijani president over the downing of the aircraft in Russian airspace – but stopped short of taking responsibility.
Aliyev accused Moscow of an initial “cowl up” over its involvement within the crash. While accepting Putin’s apology, he stated Russia “needs to admit its guilt” and pay compensation.
The Azerbaijan Airlines aircraft were en route from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, to the Chechen capital of Grozny on 25 December while it was far from ideal to have come below fire.
Flight J2-8243 became forced to divert from Chechnya and crashed close to Aktau, in Kazakhstan, killing 38 of the sixty seven on board.
Most of the passengers on the flight had been from Azerbaijan, with others from Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
Aviation specialists and others trust the aircraft`s GPS became laid low with digital jamming and it became then broken via means of shrapnel from Russian air-defence missile blasts.
But Aliyev said that in the days after the incident, “Russian agencies have tried to divert the attention from this event by the news of the gas tank explosion” that “clearly showed that the Russian side wanted to suppress the incident,” according to a transcript of an interview with state media. He also said some in Russia had put forward the statement that the plane was hit by a bird.
Aliyev called both statements “stupid and dishonest.” Azerbaijan’s president acknowledged that the plane was shot down accidentally, but said that in the first three days after the crash, “we only heard absurd versions from Russia.” He said Baku had made a series of demands to Moscow about the incident on Friday, but so far only one of them – an apology – had been met .
On Saturday, Mr Putin said the “tragic incident” occurred when Russian air defense systems repelled a Ukrainian drone and expressed “deep and sincere condolences to the families of the victims”.
The Russian president acknowledged that the plane had made several attempts to land at Grozny airport in Chechnya.
However, at the time, the cities of Grozny, Mozdok and Vladikavkaz “came under attack by Ukrainian drones and Russian air defense systems repelled these attacks”, Mr Putin said.
Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky said Russia must “stop spreading disinformation” and that the damage to the plane’s fuselage was “very reminiscent of an anti-aircraft missile attack.” The Kremlin’s statement did not directly acknowledge that the plane was hit by a Russian missile.
Aliyev said Baku demanded that Russia “admit its guilt,” punish those responsible and compensate Azerbaijan and the injured survivors of the crash.
