Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized to the President of Azerbaijan for this Civilian aircraft crash The Kremlin said on Saturday that 38 people were killed, without admitting responsibility.

“Vladimir Putin apologized for that A tragic incident occurred in Russian airspace“said the Kremlin.

The plane “repeatedly tried to land at Grozny airport,” Putin told Ilham Aliyev, who was “attacked” on the time Ukrainian combat drones.”

Russian air defense systems “repelled these attacks,” Putin said.

He did not say whether the plane was hit Russian air defense but the Kremlin said that an investigation was underway and civilian and military specialists were being questioned.

The Azerbaijan Airlines plane crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan on Christmas Day. 38 of the 67 people on board were killed.

According to a readout from Aliyev's office, Azerbaijani President Putin shared evidence indicating “external physical and technical interference” and stated that it took place in Russian airspace.

Aliyev mentioned several holes in the plane's fuselage, injuries to passengers and crew members “resulting from foreign particles that entered the cabin throughout the flight,” and statements from surviving passengers and crew members, some of whom had claimed this felt explosions before the plane crashed.

Two U.S. military officials told NBC News on Friday that the plane may have been hit by Russian missiles, saying they had information suggesting the Russians may have misidentified the plane and shot it down.

Intelligence suggested the Russians believed the plane was a drone, partly due to an irregular flight pattern, the officials said.

The Embraer 190 was subjected to “physical and technical interference from outside,” the airline said on Friday, as the plane was en route from the Azerbaijani capital Baku to Grozny, the capital of the Russian region of Chechnya.

Russian officials have warned against speculating about the cause of the crash, and on Saturday Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia was “awaiting the outcomes of the investigation.”

However, the country's aviation ministry, Rosaviatsia, previously said that the situation around the destination airport of Grozny was “very complicated” resulting from the presence of Ukrainian drones nearby.

Rosaviatsia also said that at an altitude of 1,600 feet there was thick fog and no visibility and the pilot finally decided to divert after two unsuccessful attempts to land in Grozny.

President-elect Donald Trump said Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed interest in meeting in regards to the war with Ukraine.

“President Putin said he wants to meet with me as soon as possible,” Trump said during his speech at Turning Point’s America Fest convention. “So we have to wait for it, but we have to end this war. This war is terrible, terrible.”

Trump, who is anticipated to return to the White House in January, had previously said on the campaign trail that if elected he could end the war “in 24 hours.” The president-elect recently criticized President Joe Biden's policy shift that allowed Ukraine to make use of U.S.-supplied weapons to perform attacks on Russian territory.

The president-elect also recently said that Ukraine “may” receive less military aid after he takes office. Ukraine relies heavily on military, financial and humanitarian assistance from its international partners to enable it to proceed to operate as a state and fight against Russia after nearly three years of war.

“The number of soldiers killed…” Trump said on Sunday. “It's a flat plane and the bullets are shooting and there are powerful bullets, powerful weapons, and the only thing that can stop them is a human body.”

Earlier this month, Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and French President Emmanuel Macron ahead of the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. After the meeting, Trump called for an “immediate ceasefire.”

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Monday, his first visit to the Kremlin because the invasion of Ukraine.

Their meeting is critical as it’s the Indian prime minister's first bilateral trip abroad since he was re-elected to a rare third term in June.

The two heads of state wish to strengthen the event of the “traditionally friendly relations between Russia and India” and discuss “topical issues on the international and regional agenda”. The Kremlin said last week.

The meeting will provide a possibility for either side to debate a spread of bilateral issues, from defence and trade to investment relations and energy cooperation, said India's Foreign Minister Vinay Kwatra. in a press conference on Friday.

Russia and India may also assess the status of bilateral commitments in groupings comparable to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Group of 20, the BRICS bloc of developing countries, the United Nations and the East Asia Summit, Kwatra said.

“The issue of early release of Indian citizens lured into service in the Russian army is also expected to be a subject of discussion,” Kwatra added.

Since March, India has been demanding the discharge of Russian residents who were allegedly “duped” into serving within the Russian army. The South Asian country had previously uncovered a “large human trafficking network”.

Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 triggered a series of sanctions from the G7 and other countries as world leaders sought to stop or limit Moscow's ability to finance the war. The Kremlin insisted on calling the invasion a “special military operation.”

India has shunned openly criticizing Putin, but has maintained a neutral stance towards Russia's invasion of Ukraineand called on either side to finish the war. New Delhi, nevertheless, condemned the killing of civilians in the beginning of the Ukraine conflict, but didn’t blame Russia.

Modi’s visit to the Kremlin comes immediately after his Meeting with the Heads of State and Government of the G7 in Italy last month, where the bloc of industrialized nations – comprising the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom – agreed to finance Ukraine's war against Russia with profits from frozen Kremlin assets.

India and Russia have a long-term security cooperation partnership Since the Cold War, New Delhi's armed forces have been highly depending on Moscow's military equipment.

Modi's last visit to Russia was in 2019, when he visited the Far Eastern port city of Vladivostok as a part of an economic forum. The two last met in person in 2022 on the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Uzbekistan, where Modi told the Russian president that this was not an era of war, but stopped wanting condemning his actions in Ukraine.

Like the United States, Russia has its own place in India's foreign policy. said former Indian Foreign Minister Kanwal Sibal in a recent post on the social media platform X.

“Neither India nor the global South see Putin as an international pariah,” added the previous ambassador to Russia.

India's bilateral trade with Russia increased by 33% within the fiscal yr ending March 2024. reached a historic high of 65.7 billion US dollarsHowever, an imbalance in trade still exists, Kwatra stressed.

According to official data, India's exports to Russia amounted to $4.26 billion, while imports from the Kremlin amounted to just about $61.44 billion.

After his two-day visit to Russia, Modi will travel to Vienna, Austria on Tuesday. It could be the primary visit by an Indian prime minister in 41 years.

Russia is prepared for security talks with NATO countries, President Vladimir Putin said on Friday, while reiterating Moscow's intention to expand its national nuclear arsenal.

Referring to security within the Eurasian region, Putin said on Friday that the Kremlin was “ready for a broad international discussion of these important, vital issues – both with our colleagues in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the CIS, the EAEU, BRICS, as well as with other international associations – including European and NATO countries,” in keeping with a Google-translated Report by the Russian state news agency Tass.

“Of course, if they are ready,” the Russian president added at a gathering with graduates of military universities.

Earlier on the identical day, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had indicated that Russia's willingness to carry security talks with the United States depended specifically on simultaneous discussions on the war in Ukraine.

“We are open to dialogue, but to a broad, comprehensive dialogue that includes all dimensions, including the dimension related to the conflict over Ukraine, the involvement of the United States in this conflict,” Peskov said, in keeping with a Google translation. Tass report.

His comments were in response to the potential for negotiating with Washington on nuclear risks independent of the Ukraine conflict. CNBC reached out to the US State Department to seek out out whether the White House can be willing to barter under those conditions.

Russia has to this point been largely isolated from Western-led diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict with Kyiv – and was recently not invited to the summit for peace in Ukraine on 15 and 16 June.

Senior Russian security official Dmitry Medvedev said in a Google-translated Telegram update Talks with the US on a brand new treaty to limit nuclear firepower will only be possible if Washington stops supplying Ukraine with weapons and prevents it from joining NATO.

Moscow has repeatedly identified that Kyiv's ambitions to hitch the Western-led military alliance pose a threat to its own security and one in every of the explanations for Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Kyiv has asked for membership but cannot join the coalition so long as an lively conflict is raging on its territory.

“Everything is likely to develop according to a completely different scenario,” Medvedev wrote. He envisioned a scenario during which the United States would fall right into a state of “total psychosis” out of fear of Russian bombing and missile attacks.

“Let all their elite worry! Let them tremble and shake,” he added.

The prospect of nuclear escalation is weighing heavily on NATO's tactical decisions because it considers the subsequent steps in its support for Kyiv. Russia, which inherited many of the collapsed Soviet Union's weapons of mass destruction, has the world's largest nuclear arsenal – with a complete of 5,580 warheads (as of March) between military stockpiles and reserves. According to the Federation of American ScientistsIn comparison, the United States has a complete stockpile of 5,044 warheads.

“We plan to further develop the nuclear triad as a guarantee of strategic deterrence and to preserve the balance of power in the world,” Putin said on Friday. in keeping with ReutersThe so-called “nuclear triad” refers to Russia’s ability to fireside nuclear missiles from land, sea and air.

In February 2023, Putin suspended Moscow's participation within the essential New START nuclear agreement with the USA, without completely withdrawing his country from the agreement. accordancewhich got here into force in 2011 and was prolonged for an extra five years in 2021, obliged Russia and the USA to deploy not more than 700 intercontinental ballistic missiles and a maximum of 1,550 strategic nuclear warheads.

The agreement also allows the 2 countries to conduct as much as 18 inspections of their strategic nuclear weapons sites every year to confirm compliance.

Russia has suspended its participation within the treaty and rejected US proposals for a dialogue on nuclear arms control. However, the White House continues to support Ukraine militarily.

“We see no interest whatsoever on the part of either the United States or NATO in resolving the Ukraine conflict and listening to Russia's concerns,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a press conference in January. in keeping with Reuters.

This yr, Putin escalated his war rhetoric, warning NATO of a possible nuclear conflict if the coalition implemented French President Emmanuel Macron's proposal to send Western troops to Ukraine.

″[The West] must realize that we even have weapons that may hit targets on their territory. All this actually threatens to steer to a conflict with the usage of nuclear weapons and the destruction of civilization. Don't they understand that?” Putin said in his annual state of the nation address in February.

Russia and North Korea signed a brand new “comprehensive strategic partnership” on Wednesday, as Western politicians grow increasingly concerned concerning the impact of President Vladimir Putin's first state visit to the nuclear-armed state in 24 years.

Russian state media reported the signing of the partnership, which also features a mutual defense pact, just hours after Putin arrived in Pyongyang, where he received a red carpet welcome from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and attended a welcoming ceremony attended by hundreds.

At the lavish reception of the Russian president, there was praise from Kim, who, based on the state news agency Tass, expressed his full support and solidarity with Moscow, also due to its “special military operation” in Ukraine.

In return, Putin According to reports gave Kim one other recent Aurus (a Russian-built sedan), an admiral's dagger and a tea set, a gesture symbolizing the growing ties between the 2 countries.

Russian politicians had already hinted at plans for a strategic partnership before Putin's two-day trip. The recent document replaces previous agreements and reportedly covers cooperation within the fields of politics, economics, culture, humanities and security.

“The comprehensive partnership agreement signed today provides, among other things, for mutual assistance in the event of aggression against one of the parties to this agreement,” Tass quoted Putin as saying.

“The Russian Federation does not rule out military-technical cooperation with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in accordance with the document,” Putin added.

Earlier, the North Korean ruling party's official newspaper reported on Tuesday that Putin had promised to expand trade with the country and strengthen security across Eurasia. The article added that he supported North Korea's resistance against its “dangerous and aggressive” enemies.

Western countries, which impose heavy sanctions on each Russia and North Korea, are closely monitoring the developments of the visit and its possible impact on Russia's war in Ukraine and tensions on the Korean peninsula.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said joint press conference on Tuesday that Putin's trip confirmed “the very close cooperation between Russia and authoritarian states such as North Korea” in addition to China and Iran. Stoltenberg made these remarks along with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

US officials have said that Pyongyang has supplied Russia with dozens of ballistic missiles and greater than 11,000 containers of ammunition for the war in Ukraine and that Putin could use his trip to lobby for more weapons.

“We are of course also concerned about the potential support Russia is providing to North Korea when it comes to supporting its missile and nuclear programs,” Stoltenberg said.

Victor Cha, senior vp for Asia and Korea on the Center for Strategic and International Studies, agreed in an interview with CNBC's “Squawk Box Asia” on Wednesday that North Korea's arms sales to Russia might be reciprocated by supporting the Kremlin's nuclear program.

“The question is how much Putin believes he needs the ammunition from North Korea to survive and win the war,” Cha said. “That could lower the bar for what he is willing to give North Korea, especially if Kim pushes through a hard deal.”.”

Early last year, Kim ordered the “exponential” expansion of his country's nuclear arsenal and the development of more powerful intercontinental ballistic missiles, state media reported.

“The leading provider for this [expansion] will most likely be Russia,” Cha said. “For the United States, this is a real problem … The Ukraine war is pretty much the best thing that could have happened to Kim Jong Un.”

The White House warned that any Russian support for North Korea's weapons program could have an effect on South Korea.

On Tuesday, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said in a press conference that growing relations between Russia and North Korea “should be of great concern to anyone interested in maintaining peace and stability on the Korean peninsula.”

However, Cha said the US could also be limited in its ability to slow the flow of weapons between Russia and North Korea without risking outright war.

“[The Biden administration] is paying more public attention to the issue, but on the political side I don't see any real indication of what they are trying to do in this regard,” he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday outlined the conditions for Moscow to start peace talks with Ukraine, greater than two years after the Kremlin's large-scale invasion of the neighboring country.

According to a Google translation Telegram update According to Russian state news channel Tass, the terms include the entire withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson regions in September 2022, which Russia illegally annexed inside months of the beginning of hostilities.

The Kremlin's conditions are unlikely to satisfy with much approval in Kiev, because the country has repeatedly stated that it’s going to not cede any territory to Russia.

Putin said at a gathering with the leadership of the Russian Foreign Ministry that if Ukraine begins a “real withdrawal of troops from these regions and also officially announces the abandonment of plans to join NATO, we will immediately, in the same minute, issue an order for a ceasefire and the start of negotiations,” in accordance with Google-translated Comments by Tass.

He said Moscow was determined to make sure an “unhindered and safe withdrawal” of Ukrainian forces if Kyiv agreed to such a concession.

If the peace proposal is rejected, Putin continued, Moscow's future demands could be different.

Putin's comments are in stark contrast to his Ukrainian counterpart's peace plan. Volodymyr Zelensky's ten-point proposal, presented in November 2022, calls for the restoration of the country's “territorial integrity” in accordance with the UN Charter. He also insists that Ukraine get back the Crimean peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed before the present war in February 2014.

CNBC has asked the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry for comment.

The previous peace agreements within the Ukraine conflict were doomed to failure. A 12-point plan The statement issued by Russia's ally Beijing on the one-year anniversary of the war also failed to achieve momentum. China is again pushing its own alternative diplomatic plan, Reuters reports.

Putin's proposal on Friday threatens to steal the show from the upcoming talks in Switzerland, where at the least 90 countries and organizations are as a result of meet for a summit on peace in Ukraine within the Swiss resort of Bürgenstock on June 15 and 16.

Moscow was not invited – and has previously stressed the futility of third-party negotiations to resolve the conflict without Russian involvement. Previous summits have neither led to a diplomatic solution to the conflict nor reduced hostilities on the battlefield.

This move comes as Ukraine's allies have increased their financial and military support in recent weeks.

On Thursday, G7 leaders agreed in principle to grant Kiev $50 billion in loans, to be covered by profits from the roughly 300 billion euros ($322 billion) of Russian central bank assets frozen by the West. European Council President Charles Michel stressed that “Russia must pay for this.”

NATO may also discuss further support measures for Ukraine at its upcoming summit from July 9 to 11. Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg expects member countries to agree on a “long-term financial commitment to military support” to Kyiv and that the military alliance will play a “leading role” in providing and coordinating security assistance within the war-torn country.

The US and Germany have already lifted some restrictions on their arms deliveries to Ukraine and now allow their use against targets just across the border in Russia, solely for the aim of defending Kharkiv.