Putin Admits Russian Forces Responsible for Azerbaijani Plane Crash

While outlining the causes of the 2024 Christmas Day jet disaster in Azerbaijan, President Vladimir Putin of Azerbaijan acknowledged that Russia was at fault in Dushanbe.

38 persons were killed in the crash of Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243 from Baku near Aktau, Kazakhstan. Along with five crew members, the Embraer 190 carried 67 citizens from Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan.

Putin affirmed during a meeting with President Ilham Aliyev on Thursday that the competent authorities are almost finished with their investigation into the disaster, which was “caused by several factors.”

During the night of the disaster, the president said that Russian forces had been monitoring three Ukrainian drones that had breached the federation’s border.

Because two released missiles failed to strike the aircraft directly, the second factor was “technical malfunctions in Russia’s air defense system.”

If that had occurred, the plane would have crashed right away. “They detonated meters away,” he said. “Missile fragments most likely caused the damage, not the warheads themselves.

Putin claims that the pilot reported the accident to Russian air traffic authorities, who then recorded it on the black box, believing it to be a collision with a flock of birds.

The pilot was told to make an emergency landing in Makhachkala, according to the tapes, but he chose to head back to his home base and then Kazakhstan, the Russian leader claimed.

Putin made another apology to Azerbaijan and pledged that Moscow will make every effort to make amends, including paying compensation and conducting a legal review of all the officials’ activities.

President Aliyev responded by thanking his Russian colleague for managing the crisis, mentioning that he had to turn around when the airliner went down while he was en route to a meeting in St Petersburg.

Despite the tragedy, Aliyev said that the two countries’ economic and trade relations had improved dramatically in 2025, with comparable gains in all other sectors of bilateral cooperation.

In July, the president declared that Azerbaijan would sue Russia in international tribunals after accusing Moscow on several occasions of concealing the accident’s facts and denying any responsibility.