Moscow: The Kremlin on Saturday admitted to Azerbaijan that Russian missiles were hitting over Grozny airport in response to a Ukrainian drone attack on Wednesday but stopped short of saying that its rockets hit the plane that crashed with 62 onboard.

Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized to Azerbaijan's leader for what he called a “tragic incident” following the crash of an airliner in Kazakhstan that killed 38 people. Putin stopped short of acknowledging that Moscow was responsible.

An Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 carrying 62 passengers and five crew crashed while attempting to land at Aktau Airport Kazakhstan on the morning of Dec. 25.