The president of Azerbaijan said on Sunday that the passenger plane that crashed last week was unintentionally shot down by the Russian military, killing 38 people on board.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev shared with his country’s media on Sunday that the Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243 was “shot down by accident,” CBS News reported.
Aliyev went on to allege that Russia was trying to “hush up” its involvement in the plane being shot down for several days.
“We can say with complete clarity that the plane was shot down by Russia. ... We are not saying that it was done intentionally, but it was done,” he said.
Aliyev went on to say that the plane experienced electrical jamming and was shot at while it flew near the southern Russian city of Grozny.
With Russia allegedly attempting to hide its involvement, Aliyev said that he was “upset and surprised” by the stories put out by Russian officials on what happened, some of which attributed the crash to birds or the explosion of a gas cylinder.
“Unfortunately, in the first three days, we heard only absurd versions from Russia,” Aliyev said, adding that it was only “clear attempts to cover up the matter.”
The airline shared that there were 67 people on board the plane at the time of its demise, including 62 passengers and five crew members. Among those on board, 38 died and 29 survived.
The remarks from Aliyev also come a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin issued an apology to his Azerbaijani counterpart for “the fact that the tragic incident occurred in Russian airspace.”
The Kremlin noted that its air defense systems were fighting near Grozny to deflect a Ukrainian drone strike. However, the Kremlin did not say that Russia shot down the plane, but it did say it launched a criminal probe into what happened.
Aliyev shared on Sunday that his country has three demands for Russia.
“First, the Russian side must apologize to Azerbaijan. Second, it must admit its guilt. Third, punish the guilty, bring them to criminal responsibility, and pay compensation to the Azerbaijani state, the injured passengers and crew members,” he said.