Several airlines have announced the suspension of flights to Russian cities, after Western experts and the US suggested the crash of the Azerbaijan Airlines may have been caused by a Russian anti-aircraft missile.
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. It crashed near the Kazakh city of Aktau Wednesday, killing 38 of the 67 people on board.
Turkmenistan Airlines — the national carrier of the reclusive Central Asian state — was the latest airline to announce cancelations Saturday.
It said that “regular flights between Ashgabat-Moscow-Ashgabat were canceled from 30/12/2024 to 31/01/2025,” without giving an explanation. The decision came after UAE airline flydubai suspended flights between Dubai and the southern Russian cities of Mineralnye Vody and Sochi that were scheduled between 27 December and 3 January.
Kazakhstan’s Qazaq Air has suspended its flights to Russia’s Urals city of Yekaterinburg until the end of January. Earlier this week, Israeli airline El Al said it was suspending its flights to Moscow for a week. The Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 crashed near the western Kazakh city of Aktau, on the shores of the Caspian Sea. It was carrying out a flight between Azerbaijan’s capital Baku and the city of Grozny in Russia.
Statements from Azerbaijan citing the investigation into the incident suggest Baku believes the plane was hit mid-air. On Friday, White House spokesman John Kirby said Washington has “indications” Russia may have been responsible, without giving details.
