Ukraine war latest: Russia vows retaliation over EU blocking state media on Telegram

Azerbaijan was “in favor of a group of international experts” investigating the crash, president Ilham Aliyev said.Baku had “categorically refused” Russia’s suggestion that the Interstate Aviation Committee, which oversees civil aviation in the Commonwealth of Independent States, investigate it.

“It is no secret that this organisation consists mostly of Russian officials and is headed by Russian citizens. The factors of objectivity could not be fully ensured here,” Mr Aliyev said.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told Russian state media yesterday that Vladimir Putin had spoken to Mr Aliyev over the phone again but did not provide details of the conversation.

The Kremlin said a joint investigation by Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan was underway at the crash site near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan.

The plane was flying from Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, to Grozny when it turned towards Kazakhstan, hundreds of kilometers across the Caspian Sea from its intended destination, and crashed while making an attempt to land.

Passengers and crew who survived the crash told Azerbaijani media they heard loud noises on the aircraft as it was circling over Grozny.

Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev said Azerbaijan made three demands to Russia in connection with the crash that killed 38.

“First, the Russian side must apologise to Azerbaijan. Second, it must admit its guilt. Third, punish the guilty, bring them to criminal responsibility and pay compensation to the Azerbaijani state, the injured passengers and crew members,” he said.

Mr Aliyev noted that the first demand was “already fulfilled” when Russian president Vladimir Putin apologised to him on Saturday. Mr Putin called the crash a “tragic incident” though stopped short of acknowledging Moscow’s responsibility.

He said that an investigation into the crash was ongoing, and that “the final version (of events) will be known after the black boxes are opened.”

Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev said yesterday that the Azerbaijani airliner that crashed last week was shot down by Russia, albeit unintentionally, and criticised Moscow for trying to “hush up” the issue for days.

“We can say with complete clarity that the plane was shot down by Russia. (…) We are not saying that it was done intentionally, but it was done,” he told Azerbaijani state television.

Mr Aliyev said that the airliner, which crashed Wednesday in Kazakhstan, was hit by fire from the ground over Russia and “rendered uncontrollable by electronic warfare.”

Mr Aliyev accused Russia of trying to “hush up” the issue for several days, saying he was “upset and surprised” by versions of events put forward by Russian officials.“Unfortunately, for the first three days we heard nothing from Russia except delirious versions,” he said.

The crash killed 38 of 67 people on board. The Kremlin said that air defense systems were firing near Grozny, the regional capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya, where the plane attempted to land, to deflect a Ukrainian drone strike.

Azerbaijan’s president has said the Azerbaijani airliner that crashed in Kazakhstan last week was shot down by Russia, albeit unintentionally.

“We can say with complete clarity that the plane was shot down by Russia. We are not saying that it was done intentionally, but it was done,” Ilham Aliyev told Azerbaijani state television.

Mr Aliyev said the aircraft was hit by fire from the ground over Russia and rendered uncontrollable by electronic warfare.

He accused Russia of trying to “hush up” the issue for several days, saying he was “upset and surprised” by versions of events put forward by Russian officials.

“Unfortunately, for the first three days we heard nothing from Russia except delirious versions,” he said.

The crash near Aktau airport on Wednesday December 25 killed 38 of the 67 people on board.

Russian energy giant Gazprom said it would suspend gas exports to Moldova from 1 January due to unpaid debt by Moldova, which is bracing for severe power cuts.

It said the company reserved the right to take any action, including terminating the supply contract with Moldova.

Russia supplies Moldova with about 2 billion cubic metres of gas per year, which is piped via Ukraine to the breakaway region of Transdniestria where it is used to generate cheap power that is sold to government-controlled parts of Moldova.

Moldovan Prime Minister Dorin Recean condemned the Russian decision, which is a precursor to a total shutdown of Russian gas exports via Ukraine and to Europe, where it flows further to Slovakia, Austria, Hungary and Italy, once a current transit deal with Ukraine expires on 31 December.

Moldova will be hit the hardest by the shutdown.

“This decision confirms once again the intention of the Kremlin to leave the inhabitants of the Transdniestrian region without light and heat in the middle of the winter,” Recean wrote on Facebook, accusing Russia of using energy as a political weapon.

Moscow has repeatedly dismissed those allegations.

Aleksei Bugayev, a former member of Russia’s national soccer team who played at Euro 2004, has been killed in the 34-month-old war in Ukraine, Russian media quoted his father and agent as saying on Sunday.

“Unfortunately, the news about Aleksei’s death is true. It happened today,” TASS news agency quoted the player’s father Ivan Bugayev as telling the Sport24 news outlet.

RIA news agency quoted Bugayev’s agent, Anton Smirnov, as saying intense fighting had made it impossible to retrieve Bugayev’s body for burial.

Bugayev, dead at age 43, played two matches for the Russian national team in the 2004 European championship and also played for Moscow sides Torpedo and Lokomotiv as well as other provincial sides. He ended his career in 2010 at the age of 29.

In September Bugayev was sentenced by a court in southern Russia to nine and a half years in prison on drug trafficking charges.

He later declared his intention to sign up to fight in the Ukraine war. Russian authorities actively recruit in prisons for the conflict.

Some aviation experts have said the holes seen in the plane’s tail section after the crash indicate that it could have come under fire from Russian air defense systems fending off a Ukrainian drone attack.

Mark Zee of OPSGroup, which monitors the world’s airspace and airports for risks, said that the analysis of the fragments of the crashed plane indicates a 90-99% probability that it was hit by a surface-to-air missile.

FlightRadar24 said in an online post that the aircraft had faced “strong GPS jamming” that interfered with flight tracking data allowing it to monitor the plane’s flight path. Russia has extensively used sophisticated jamming equipment to fend off drone attacks.

It’s unclear why the pilots decided to fly across the Caspian Sea instead of trying to land in Russia after the plane was hit, he said, adding that they probably faced restrictions on landing at a closer venue and may have thought that the damage was not critical.

In Azerbaijan, Caliber online newspaper also claimed that the airliner was fired upon by a Russian Pantsyr-S air defense system and also had its systems affected by jamming equipment as it was approaching Grozny.