The Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 17 flight was shot down by Russia, prompting a “tragic incident” in the U.S.

MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday apologized to his Azerbaijani counterpart for what he called a “tragic incident” following the crash of an Azerbaijani airliner in Kazakhstan that killed 38 people, but stopped short of acknowledging that Moscow was responsible.

The crash took the lives of 38 people. The Kremlin said that air defense systems were firing near Grozny, the regional capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya, where a plane was attempting to land.

In the immediate aftermath of the crash, the airlines suspended flights to several Russian airports. It didn’t say where the interference came from or provide any further details.

The plane took off from the capital of Azerbaijan, Baku, and headed for Grozny, but turned around and plummeted into the ocean after making an attempt to land. There are 29 survivors.

The plane crash that left an unknown number of people dead was shot down by Russia, even unintentionally, and the President of Azeri said he disliked Moscow for trying to deal with it.

Aliyev noted that the plane had multiple holes in its fuselage and that the occupants had sustained injuries “due to foreign particles penetrating the cabin mid-flight.”

The crash of the plane on Friday was blamed on an external weapon by both the U.S. official and the azbek minister, as well as by aviation experts who blamed the crash on the Russian air defense systems.

There are two deadly civil aviation accidents linked to fighting in Ukraine. The Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine in the summer of 2014, killing all passengers and crew, as it flew over the area.

Putin had a conversation with Aliyev in Moscow, according to the Kremlin-Newton spokesman Dmitry Peskov

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian state media on Sunday that Putin had spoken to Aliyev over the phone again, but did not provide details of the conversation.