Putin apologized for the “tragic incident” in Russian airspace, but the Kremlin did not take responsibility for downing the Azerbaijan Airlines flight.

The extremely rare publicised apology from Putin was the closest Moscow had come to accepting some blame for Wednesday's disaster, although the Kremlin statement did not say Russia had shot down the plane.

The Kremlin has said that the Russian president "apologized for the tragic incident" and expressed his "deep and sincere condolences" to the victims' families.