Baku-Grozny flight disaster: Zelenskyy expressed condolences to Azerbaijan and recalled MH17

On December 27, President Volodymyr Zelenskyi commented on the Azerbaijan Airlines flight disaster, expressing his condolences to the country’s President Ilham Aliyev and the Azerbaijani people.

“Every human life is precious and every loss of life deserves a thorough investigation to establish the truth,” he wrote on the social network X (formerly Twitter).

Referring to photos and videos from the crash site, Zelenskyi expressed his belief that Russia is responsible for the plane crash.

Read also: “Russia cannot be allowed to lie”: Sybiga called for a “fair investigation” of the plane crash in Kazakhstan

“If Russia continues to spread lies, as it did in the downing of MH17, it will be necessary to consolidate all international pressure on Moscow so that the truth is established and those responsible brought to justice,” he added.

Some representatives of the parliament and government of Azerbaijan previously expressed the opinion that the plane could have been affected by external influences that led to the accident.

An Azerbaijan Airlines plane, which was traveling from the capital of Azerbaijan, Baku, to the Russian city of Grozny, crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan in the morning of December 25. The plane went down after it was refused by airports in Russia. There were 67 people on board, including five crew members. As a result of the plane crash, 38 people died, 29 survived.

After the plane crash, the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said that the country’s authorities do not know the reasons for the crash of the Azerbaijan Airlines plane. Later, Euronews and Reuters, citing sources in Azerbaijan, reported that the cause of the crash was a Russian air defense missile.

If the cause of the ground-to-air strike is confirmed, it will be the second time a Russian missile has shot down a passenger plane since Moscow’s ten-year war against Ukraine. On July 17, 2014, a Russian Buk missile fired from the Moscow-controlled territory of Donetsk region shot down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, killing all 298 passengers and crew members.