In statement on plane crash, Putin fails to acknowledge Russian threat - British Foreign Office

This was stated on Saturday by a spokesman for the British Foreign Office, Ukrinform reports with reference to Sky News.

"Putin's statement fails to recognize that the reckless and irresponsible actions of the Russian state pose an acute and direct threat to the interests and national security of other states," he said.

According to the spokesperson, Britain calls for a full and independent investigation into the Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash.

Yesterday, Russian leader Vladimir Putin apologized to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev for the fact that the “tragic incident” with the Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet occurred in Russian airspace

As Ukrinform reported earlier, the Embraer passenger plane, flight J2-8243, crashed on Wednesday near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan. The Embraer was en route from the Azerbaijani capital Baku to Grozny in southern Chechnya before deviating from its course hundreds of kilometers over the Caspian Sea. It crashed on the opposite coast of the Caspian Sea.

Thirty-eight of the 67 people on board died.

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

The White House also said there was evidence that the passenger plane was downed by a Russian air defense system.

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