Putin began the meeting with Aliyev with a discussion of the AZAL plane crash

Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev start the meeting by discussing the situation with the AZAL plane crash.

The Russian leader recalled that he had apologized for the fact that the tragedy with the AZAL plane occurred in the skies over Russia.

The Russian President expressed his most sincere condolences to the families of the victims.

According to President Putin, the Russian side has data on the presence of several Ukrainian drones in the airspace near the crash site. He also said that at the time of the incident, Russian air defense systems fired missiles, which, according to preliminary information, did not hit the plane directly, but exploded in the immediate vicinity of it. Putin suggested that the cause of the crash could be damage to the aircraft by rocket debris.

The Russian President added that the crew of the AZAL aircraft was offered to land at Makhachkala airport, but the pilots preferred to continue the flight to the destination airport.

Aliyev thanked Putin for the information about the AZAL aircraft.

Putin met with Aliyev in Dushanbe, where the summit of the heads of the CIS countries is taking place on October 9.