Russian President Vladimir Putin holds his annual end-of-year press conference in Moscow on December 19, 2024. Emergency specialists work at the crash site of an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet near the western Kazakh city of Aktau on December 25, 2024. The Embraer 190 aircraft was supposed to fly northwest from the Azerbaijani capital Baku to the city of Grozny in Chechnya in southern Russia, but instead diverted far off course across the Caspian Sea. It crashed on December 25, 2024 near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan. (Photo by Issa Tazhenbayev  South Korea’s ruling People Power Party lawmakers, bottom, argue to National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik, center top, during the plenary session for the impeachment vote of acting president Han Duck-soo at the National Assembly in Seoul on December 27, 2024. South Korea’s ruling People Power Party lawmakers, bottom, argue to National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik, center top, during the plenary session for the impeachment vote of acting president Han Duck-soo at the National Assembly in Seoul on December 27, 2024.

The signs point to a Russian system striking Azerbaijan Airlines flight J2-8243 before it crashed near the city of Aktau, the US official said Thursday. Russian air defense units may have fired on the commercial airliner believing it was a long-range Ukrainian attack drone, they added Friday. On Saturday, Putin “apologized for the fact that the tragic incident occurred in Russian airspace” in a phone call with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, adding that Russian air defenses were active at the time but stopping shot of admitting fault.

Thirty-eight of the 67 people on board died in the crash. Among the survivors were two children. The plane was traveling from the Azerbaijani capital Baku to Grozny, the capital city of the southern Russian republic of Chechnya, before it made an emergency landing approximately 3 kilometers 1.8 miles from Aktau, Azerbaijan Airlines said on Wednesday. According to flight-tracking website Flightradar24, the plane set off on Wednesday at 7:55 a.m. Azerbaijan Standard Time 10:55 p.m. Tuesday ET and crashed about two-and-a-half hours later. Officials did not immediately explain why the plane had crossed the Caspian Sea, when Baku and Grozny are to its west and Aktau is to its east.  (CNN)