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“Azerbaijan apologizes to Russia for this tragic incident,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. He also claims that the helicopter was shot down by accident and that the actions “were not directed against” Moscow.
Baku said the decision to fire the helicopter was made in the face of “tensions in the region and increased combat readiness,” after six weeks of fierce fighting between Azerbaijani forces and Armenian-backed separatists in disputed Nagorno-Karabakh. .
Earlier Monday, Russia’s defense ministry reported that a Russian military helicopter was shot down in Armenia near the Azerbaijani border on Monday, killing two crew members during the incident.
A report from the ministry said that a missile fired from a portable device hit the aircraft. The incident took place near the border with Azerbaijan, whose forces are fighting Armenian-backed separatists in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said another man was injured but was able to be evacuated.
At that time, the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Armenia indicated that a report of the incident had been received at 6 pm 39 min. local time (4:39 pm Lithuania) and that the Russian plane crashed into a gorge in the southern part of the country and caught fire.
The Mi-24 helicopter under Russian attack was out of the combat zone, said Major General Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry.
The incident happened around 5 pm 30 minutes. Moscow (4:30 pm Lithuanian time). The helicopter accompanied a column of cars from the 102nd Russian military base on the territory of Armenia, in the airspace near the Armenian settlement of Yerasch near the border with the Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan, Nakhichevan, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.
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