Azerbaijan Airlines crash: was this another military shoot-down of a civil aircraft? - Key questions and answers about the first fatal crash anywhere in the world involving a passenger jet in 2024

Putin did admit that Russian air defences were at work when the passenger plane tried to land in Grozny before crashing, and the Kremlin said Putin apologised to Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev over the "tragic incident" in a phone call, but did not say Russian air defence shot the plane.