Putin apologises for 'tragic' Azerbaijan plane crash

Russia's Vladimir Putin has apologised to Azerbaijan's president for a "tragic incident" which happened in Russian airspace involving an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger plane that crashed after air defences were used against Ukrainian drones.

The extremely rare publicised apology from Putin was the closest Moscow had come to accepting some blame for Wednesday's disaster, although the Kremlin statement did not say Russia had shot down the plane, only noting that a criminal case had been opened.

Flight J2-8243 crashed on Wednesday in a ball of fire near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan after diverting from southern Russia where Ukrainian drones were reported to be attacking several cities. At least 38 people were killed.

Four sources with knowledge of the preliminary findings of Azerbaijan's investigation into the disaster told Reuters on Thursday that Russian air defences had mistakenly shot it down.

"(President) Vladimir Putin apologised for the tragic incident that occurred in Russian airspace and once again expressed his deep and sincere condolences to the families of the victims and wished a speedy recovery to the injured," the Kremlin said in a statement on Saturday.

"At that time, Grozny, Mozdok and Vladikavkaz were being attacked by Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles, and Russian air defence systems repelled these attacks," the Kremlin said.

The Kremlin said the call took place at Putin's request.

Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijan's president, had noted that the plane had been "subjected to external physical and technical interference in Russian airspace, resulting in a complete loss of control and redirection to the Kazakh city of Aktau," according to Azerbaijan's presidential office.

The Embraer EMBR3.SA passenger jet had flown from Azerbaijan's capital Baku to Grozny, in Russia's southern Chechnya region, before veering off hundreds of miles across the Caspian Sea.

The Kremlin said civilian and military specialists were being questioned.

Putin also phoned Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, his counterpart in Kazakhstan, to express his condolences over the loss of life in the crash, the Kremlin said.

On Saturday, US President Joe Biden responded to a question about whether Putin should take responsibility for the crash while he was leaving church in St Croix in the US Virgin Islands, where he is on vacation.

"Apparently he did, but I haven't spoken to him or my team," Biden replied.

The White House said on Friday it had seen early indications suggesting the airliner was possibly brought down by Russian air defence systems and added that Washington had offered assistance to the investigation into the crash.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he has expressed condolences to Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev about the crash.

"The key priority now is a thorough investigation to provide answers to all questions about what really happened. Russia must provide clear explanations and stop spreading disinformation," Zelenskiy said in a statement on X after the call on Saturday.

Russia is conducting an offical investigation into the incident, while Kazakh and Azerbaijani authorities are conducting their own probes.