Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said on Sunday that the Azerbaijani plane that crashed last week was shot down by Russia, albeit unintentionally, and criticized Moscow for trying to “cover up” the incident for days.
“We can say very clearly that Russia shot down the plane. (…) We are not saying that it happened intentionally, but it happened,” he said.
Aliyev said the plane that crashed on Wednesday in Kazakhstan was hit by fire from the ground over Russia and “went out of control due to electronic warfare.” Aliyev accused Russia of trying to “cover up” the incident for days, saying he was “disturbed and surprised” by the versions of events put forward by Russian officials.
“Unfortunately, in the first three days we heard nothing from Russia except delusional versions,” he said.
The crash killed 38 of the 67 people on board. The Kremlin said air defense systems opened fire near Grozny, the regional capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya, where the plane was trying to land, to avoid a Ukrainian drone strike.
Aliyev said Azerbaijan had made three demands to Russia regarding the incident.
“First, the Russian side must apologize to Azerbaijan. Second, it must admit its guilt. Third, punish the guilty, bring them to criminal liability and pay compensation to the Azerbaijani state, injured passengers and crew members.
Aliyev noted that the first demand “has already been fulfilled” when Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized to him on Saturday. Putin described the incident as a “tragic accident” but stopped short of acknowledging Moscow’s responsibility.
He said the investigation into the incident is ongoing, and that “the final version (of events) will be known after the black boxes are opened.”
He noted that Azerbaijan has always been “in favor of the formation of an international expert group” to investigate the incident, and “categorically rejected” Russia’s proposal that the Interstate Aviation Commission, which oversees civil aviation in the Commonwealth of Independent States, investigate the incident.
“It is no secret that this organization consists mostly of Russian officials and is headed by Russian citizens. Objectivity factors cannot be fully guaranteed here,” Aliyev said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian state media on Sunday that Putin had spoken to Aliyev by phone again, but gave no details of the conversation.
The Kremlin also said a joint investigation by Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan was underway at the crash site near the Kazakh city of Aktau. The plane was en route from the Azerbaijani capital Baku to Grozny when it turned toward Kazakhstan, hundreds of kilometers (miles) across the Caspian Sea from its intended destination, and crashed as it attempted to land.
Passengers and crew who survived the crash told Azerbaijani media they heard loud noises on board the plane as it flew over Grozny.
Dmitry Yadrov, the head of Russia’s Rosaviatsia civil aviation authority, said on Friday that as the plane was preparing to land in Grozny in heavy fog, Ukrainian drones were targeting the city, prompting authorities to close the area to air traffic.
The crash was the second deadly civil aviation accident linked to the fighting in Ukraine. Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down by a Russian surface-to-air missile, killing all 298 people on board, as it flew over eastern Ukraine controlled by Moscow-backed separatists in 2014. Russia has denied responsibility, but a Dutch court in 2022 convicted two Russians and a pro-Russian Ukrainian man for their role in shooting down the plane with an air defence system brought into Ukraine from a Russian military base.
