Russian President Vladimir Putin has apologised to his Azerbaijan counterpart Ilham Aliyev for the ill-fated Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed over the country’s airspace, killing 38 people during a flight between the two countries on Christmas Day.

According to the New York Times, Russia did not explicitly take responsibility for the crash amid speculation that its air defence system downed the plane but Kremlin confirmed in a statement on Saturday that Mr Putin “offered his apologies” for the crash in a phone call to Mr Aliyev.

The statement noted that Mr Putin told Mr Aliyev “that the tragic incident took place in Russian airspace”. He added that Russian air defences were actively intercepting Ukrainian drones on the Grozny airport and others nearby when the plane was flying over the vicinity.

Azerbaijan Airlines had on Friday said the Embraer jet, which was carrying more than 60 passengers and crew members from Azerbaijan’s capital of Baku to the Russian city of Grozny, suffered “physical and technical external interference”.

The plane had originally tried to land at Grozny airport in southern Russia but was diverted across the Caspian Sea to Kazakhstan following an explosion before it eventually crashed and burst into flames at high speed 3km from Aktau airport runway, witnesses said.

Meanwhile, Azerbaijan’s presidential office has subsequently confirmed that Mr Putin has issued an apology over the crash, stating that the plane suffered external impact, which eventually led to the fatal accident.

“President Ilham Aliyev emphasised that the Azerbaijan Airlines passenger plane encountered external physical and technical interference while in Russian airspace, resulting in a complete loss of control,” the statement said.