Vladimir Putin has apologised for the Azerbaijan Airlines crash but stopped short of accepting responsibility for what he described as a “tragic incident”.

In a phone call with Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan, Putin “offered his apologies” and admitted that the problems began in Russian airspace.

He told Mr Aliyev that Russian air defences had been responding to an attack by Ukrainian drones on Grozny, southern Russia, where the plane was due to land, according to the Kremlin.

The plane crashed in Kazakhstan, killing 38 of 67 passengers. The pilots, who both died in the crash, were credited with saving many lives by managing to land part of the plane.

In his statement, which broke three days of official silence from the Kremlin, Putin did not attribute the downing of the plane to the actions of Russian air defences.

But in its own statement, Baku suggested that the blame did lie with Moscow.