Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized to the President of Azerbaijan for the crash of the civilian airliner that killed 38 people, the Kremlin said Saturday, stopping short of admitting responsibility.

A Kremlin statement said air defence systems were firing near Grozny on Wednesday, but stopped short of saying one of these hit the plane. View on euronews

Russian dictator Vladimir Putin apologized to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev for the "tragic incident" involving the Azerbaijan Airlines plane. However, the dictator did not acknowledge the downing of the aircraft,