Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday expressed his regret to his Azerbaijani counterpart for what he referred to as a tragic event following the crash of an Azerbaijani airliner in Kazakhstan that resulted in the deaths of 38 individuals, but refrained from admitting that Moscow bore any responsibility.

Putin's expression of regret occurred amid increasing accusations that the aircraft had been downed by Russian air defenses attempting to intercept

 A Ukrainian drone attack near Grozny, the regional capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya.

An official statement from the Kremlin released Burundi phone number list on Saturday indicated that air defense systems were firing in the vicinity of Grozny airport while the airliner was making repeated attempts to land there on Wednesday. It did not explicitly state that one of these systems struck the aircraft.

The statement noted that Putin conveyed his apologies to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev for the occurrence of the tragic incident within Russian airspace.

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The readout stated that Russia has initiated a criminal investigation into the incident, and Azerbaijani state prosecutors have traveled to Grozny to be involved. The Kremlin further announced that pertinent agencies from Russia, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan are collaboratively looking into the crash site near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan.

The aircraft was en route from Azerbaijan's capital, Baku, to Grozny when it veered towards Kazakhstan, several hundred kilometers across the Caspian Sea from its planned destination, and crashed while attempting to land. There were 29 survivors.

According to a summary of the call relayed by Aliyev's press office

 The Azerbaijani president informed Putin that the aircraft was subjected to "external physical and technical interference," although he did not directly Burundi Phone Number Database hold Russian air defenses accountable.

Aliyev pointed out that the plane had multiple punctures in its fuselage and that the passengers had sustained injuries from foreign objects entering the cabin during flight.

On Friday, a US official and an Azerbaijani minister made individual remarks attributing the crash to an external weapon, reflecting statements made by aviation specialists who attributed the crash to Russian air defense systems reacting to a Ukrainian offensive.