Displaying items by tag: air crash

President Ilham Aliyev has urged Russia to accept responsibility for the Christmas Day crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines plane, which killed 38 of the 67 onboard. The flight, from Baku to Grozny, was diverted from Chechnya and crashed in Kazakhstan. Vladimir Putin has apologised but stopped short of admitting fault, attributing the tragedy to Russian defences countering Ukrainian drone attacks. Aliyev criticised initial Russian explanations, including claims of a gas cylinder explosion and bird strikes, as ‘foolish and dishonest’. He acknowledged the incident was accidental but demanded that Russia admit guilt, punish those responsible, and provide compensation: he commented, ‘No one would have thought that in a friendly country, our plane would be fired at from the ground’. The crew members were honoured for landing the plane in a way that allowed 29 people to survive, even though it led to their own deaths.

Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin is presumed dead, having been named as one of ten passengers in a private jet that crashed north of Moscow. A key ally of Vladimir Putin, his private military company has played a key role in Ukraine following Moscow's invasion in February 2022. But his relationship with Putin soured after he ordered his troops to march on Moscow in a day-long rebellion against Russia's military leaders in June. The details of the crash are not clear, but claims that it was shot down have not been substantiated. The following day Putin said he had sent condolences to Prigozhin’s family.  His death will leave Putin stronger in the short term, removing a powerful figure who had played an important part in the war but had also been openly critical of Russia’s military leaders.