Russian President Vladimir Putin has 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

Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized to his Azerbaijani counterpart after an incident in Russian airspace that led to the crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger aircraft on Dec. 25, killing dozens.

Four sources with knowledge of the preliminary findings of Azerbaijan's investigation told Reuters that Russian air defences mistakenly shot it down.