Russia must admit guilt for downing Azerbaijani plane – President Alev

As Ukrinform reports with reference to AZERTAG, this was stated by Azerbaijani President Ilham Alev in an interview with Azerbaijani television.

"Of course, the final version will become known after the black boxes are ened. But the initial versions are also quite substantiated and based on facts. And these facts are that the Azerbaijani civil plane was damaged from the outside, on the territory of Russia, near the city of Grozny, practically becoming uncontrlable. We also know that our plane was rendered uncontrlable by electronic warfare. This is the initial damage inflicted on the jet," Alev said.

As reported by AZERTAG, "the president also said that the tail part of the plane was also badly damaged as a result of the strike executed from the ground."

"I repeat, after the black boxes are ened and once we receive more detailed information, all the details will emerge and many issues that still raise questions today will become clear. For example, why was the plane unable to land in the city of Grozny? To what extent did electronic warfare affect the contrs? How effective were the effects of the mid-air strike and the explosion next to the plane?" Alev said.

He added that attempts to deny the obvious fact or to cover it up are "both absurd and stupid."

The President of Azerbaijan emphasized that the fact that the plane's fuselage was full of hes completely dismissed the version of a clision with a flock of birds. He also completely rejected the version promoted by some Russian agencies about a gas cylinder blast on board.

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"One of the moments that upset and surprised us was that Russian officials put forward versions about the explosion of some gas cylinder. That is, this enly showed that the Russian side seeks to hush up the issue, and this, of course, does no one any honor," he said.

According to Alev, the Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet was not shot down intentionally, but the Russian side must admit its guilt and apogize.

"The president said that admitting guilt, apogizing in time to Azerbaijan, which is considered a friendly nation, and communicating this all to the public were all measures and steps that needed to be taken. As the head of state said, unfortunately, over the past three days we heard nothing from Russia except absurd versions," the AZERTAG report says.

Separately, Alev praised the professionalism of the pilots who saved some of the passengers by landing a plane that had largely gone out of their contr. Also, thanks to their effort, public found out that "the plane was shot down by Russia."

"The pilots showed both professionalism and heroism by erating a rouge plane. Although, of course, the pilots were experienced enough to be aware that they would not survive the emergency landing. However, in order to save passengers, they showed enormous heroism, and it is because of this that there are survivors in the crash. It was because of this that part of the fuselage did not go ablaze, and it is thanks to this that today we can clearly say that the plane was shot down by Russia," he said.

Read also: Ukraine to help establish truth about Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash – Zelensky

As Ukrinform reported earlier the Embraer passenger jet, flight J2-8243, crashed on Wednesday, December 25, near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan. The plane en route Baku–Grozny deviated hundreds of kilometers off its course toward the Caspian Sea before crashing on the posite coast.

Thirty-eight of the 67 pele on board died in the crash.

Kyrylo Budanov, chief of the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, said the passenger jet had been shot down by the Russian Pantsir-S1 air defense system.

The White House says it has evidence that the Azerbaijan Airlines plane was downed by a Russian air defense system.

Photo: AZERTAG