Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, with Russia’s Tass news agency reporting that the Russian president expressed his “apology” for the “tragic incident of the plane crash in Russian airspace.”

According to the same source, it was said in the conversation that the Azerbaijani aircraft was trying to land at Grozny airport at the time when it was under attack by Ukrainian drones that the Russian air defense was trying to intercept.

“The Azerbaijani passenger aircraft repeatedly attempted to land at Grozny airport. At that time Grozny, Mozdok and Vladikavkaz were under attack by Ukrainian UAVs and the Russian air defense repelled these attacks,” the Kremlin statement said.