Russia’s leader apologises for the downing of an Azerbaijani plane in Russian airspace – without directly taking blame.
In his first comments on the Christmas Day crash, Putin said the “tragic incident” had occurred when Russian air defence systems were actively repelling Ukrainian drones.
It had been reported the plane came under fire from Russian air defence systems as it tried to land in Chechnya – forcing it to divert across the Caspian Sea.
It crash-landed in Kazakhstan, killing 38 of the 67 on board.
