The Minister of Defense of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Colonel General Zakir Hasanov, sent a letter of condolences to the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, General of the Army Sergei Shoigu.

Axar.az reports citing MoD.

The letter says: “Deeply saddened by the news of the tragic incident of the Mi-24, which flew in close proximity to the Armenian-Azerbaijani state border, where helicopters of the Russian Air Force had not previously been seen, at night, at low altitude, outside the radar detection zone of the air defence, while active fighting continues in the zone of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

We apologize to the Russian side in connection with this tragic incident, which is of the nature of an accident and was not directed against the Russian side.

On behalf of the personnel of the Azerbaijan Army and on my own behalf, I would like to express my sincere condolences to the families, relatives and friends of the deceased crew members and wish the victims a speedy recovery.

Together with you, we grieve over the tragedy."