Along with the Poles and those in the Baltics, Eastern Europeans still feel bitter and resentful about the Soviet occupation of their region just like how the Indians feel about the British Empire. Putin knows it and showed his human side when he sincerely apologized about the terrible accident over Grozny.
On 26 December, Euronews reported that Azerbaijani officials had determined the plane had been hit mid-flight by a Russian missile during efforts to repel a Ukrainian drone attack on Grozny Airport. Shrapnel from the blast injured several passengers and cabin crew.[4] On 27 December, The New York Times reported that Azerbaijani investigators believed a Russian Pantsir-S1 air-defence system had damaged the plane before it crashed.[5] On 4 February, Reuters reported that investigators had recovered a fragment of a Russian Pantsir-S missile from inside the fuselage.[3]
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