The extremely rare publicised apology from Putin was the closest Moscow had come to accepting some blame for Wednesday's disaster, although the Kremlin statement did not say Russia had shot down the plane.

The first fatal accident anywhere in the world involving a passenger jet in 2024 happened on Christmas Day. Thirty-eight passengers and crew died when Azerbaijan Airlines flight J2-8243 from the airline’s hub at Baku to Grozny, the capital of Russia ‘s Chechnya, crashed short of Aktau airport in Kazakhstan; 29 survived.