Russian President Vladimir Putin said Saturday he apologized after the Azerbaijan Airlines flight crashed over Grozny, Chechnya, killing 38 people and injuring 29 others in southern Russia on Christmas Day.

The Azerbaijani plane was flying on Wednesday from Azerbaijan’s capital of Baku to Grozny, the regional capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya, when it turned towards Kazak

On 25 December, 38 people died when an Azerbaijan Airlines flight, which had been due to land in Russia, crash-landed in Kazakhstan. The circumstances around the crash remain unclear, but limited evidence so far suggests it may have been hit by missiles fired by a Russian air-defence system as it tried to land in Chechnya.