ISLAMABAD: Monitoring Desk – On October 9, Ilham Aliyev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, held a one-on-one meeting with Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation, in Dushanbe. The sides discussed the AZAL air hit in Russian airspace and crashed in Kazakhstan.
President Vladimir Putin said, we are certainly providing every possible assistance to the investigation. The investigation is nearing completion, and we can now talk about the general causes of this tragedy, this catastrophe. It is connected with a number of circumstances.
He said, The first is that a Ukrainian drone was in the sky. We were tracking three such drones that had crossed the Russian border on the night of the tragedy.
“The second reason is associated with some technical malfunction of the Russian air defense system itself. The two missiles that were fired did not directly hit the aircraft (had that happened, it would have crashed on the spot), but exploded, perhaps through self-destruction, a few meters away, around 10 meters. This is how damage was caused – primarily not by warhead fragments themselves but most likely by debris from the missiles, President Putin mentioned.
He added, This explains why the pilot mistook the impact for a collision with a flock of birds, which he reported to Russian air traffic controllers – all of which is recorded in the so-called “black boxes”. He was advised, and this is clearly recorded in the black boxes, to land in Makhachkala, but he decided to return to his home airport and then to Kazakhstan. Nevertheless, the facts remain as they are.
Mr. Putin said , the Russian side will do everything that is required in such tragic situations in terms of compensation. A legal assessment will also be given to the actions of all officials.
President Ilham Aliyev expressed his gratitude to Mr. Putin for his personal oversight of this situation.
Later, President Azerbaijan, on bilateral relations , said our relations have developed successfully this year not only in trade and economic areas but also across all other fields. There is strong momentum in the growth of trade turnover, and no slowdown or setbacks have been observed in any other area. On the contrary, the roadmaps we approved are being successfully implemented.
A meeting of the Azerbaijan-Russia Intergovernmental Commission was also held recently, where the co-chairs discussed a wide range of issues in detail – not just trade and economic matters.
