Russian President Vladimir Putin apologised on Saturday over the crash of an Azerbaijani Airlines plane, though he stopped short of accepting that it might have been hit by Russian fire.

Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized for the deadly Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243 crash on Christmas but did not take responsibility for causing it as an investigation continues into the matter.

Four sources with knowledge of the preliminary findings of Azerbaijan's investigation told Reuters that Russian air defences mistakenly shot it down.