Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has apologized for the fact that an Azerbaijan Airlines flight crashed after entering Russian airspace in Grozny, Chechnya on Wednesday, but did not say that Russia was responsible.

Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev over the December 25 Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash that claimed 38 lives, the Kremlin’s press service reported.

Russian President, Vladimir Putin, on Saturday, admitted that his country’s air defence was working when an Azerbaijani Airlines plane tried to land in Grozny before crashing, breaking the Kremlin’s silence as speculation mount that Russia may have accidentally shot the plane.