By Darya Tarasova and Catherine Nicholls, CNN
(CNN) — Russian President Vladimir Putin said Saturday that Russia’s air defense systems were active when an Azerbaijan Airlines flight attempted to land in Grozny, Chechnya on Wednesday.
The plane was unable to land and diverted east, eventually crashing near Aktau, Kazakhstan, killing 38 people on board.
It is unconfirmed what was behind the incident, but a US official told CNN on Thursday that early indications suggest a Russian anti-aircraft system may have downed the passenger jet. In his comments Putin did not say that Russian air defenses hit the plane.
Putin “apologized for the fact that the tragic incident occurred in Russian airspace” in a phone call with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, the Kremlin said in a statement Saturday.
The Kremlin said that the plane “repeatedly attempted to land at the airport in Grozny” but at the same time, the areas of “Grozny, Mozdok and Vladikavkaz were attacked by Ukrainian combat drones, and Russian air defense systems repelled these attacks.”
Russia’s investigative committee has opened a criminal case in relation to the disaster, the statement said.
In a statement on Friday, Ukraine’s foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said Russian media has “lied about the cause of the crash,” adding that Moscow “forced the damaged jet to cross the sea, most likely in an attempt to conceal evidence of their crime.”
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CNN’s Oren Liebermann, Victoria Butenko and Kosta Gak contributed to this report.
Russian air defenses were active when Azerbaijan Airlines plane attempted landing, Putin says News Channel 3-12.
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