Russia confirms Erdogan's phone call to Putin

MOSCOW

Vladimir Putin’s office has confirmed that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan placed a call with the Russian leader after Turkish jets downed a Russian warplane on Tuesday.

Dmitri Peskov, spokesperson for the Russian president, told reporters on Friday: "Erdogan put a phone call to Putin 7-8 hours after the downing of the plane."

Erdogan said late on Thursday that he called his Russian counterpart to discuss the incident, but claimed that Putin has so far failed to respond.

On Tuesday, a Russian aircraft was warned 10 times about entering Turkey’s airspace before it was shot down by two Turkish F-16s.

NATO confirmed the accuracy of the radar trace data Turkey shared which clearly showed the Russian violation.

It was not the first time Russian fighter jets have violated Turkish airspace.

In early October, Russian warplanes breached Turkish territory. Russian officials apologized and pledged that no such incident would be repeated.

Turkey had also renewed its warning on engagement rules, including a military response against violations of Turkish airspace.