Putin Takes Responsibility for Russian Role in Azerbaijani Military Plane Crash

In Dushanbe, Azerbaijan, President Vladimir Putin laid forth the causes of the 2024 Christmas Day jet disaster in Azerbaijan and acknowledged that Russia was to blame.

38 passengers were killed when Baku-based Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243 crashed close to Aktau, Kazakhstan. Five crew members and 67 citizens from Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan were on board the Embraer 190.

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

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

Two fired missiles failed to strike the aircraft directly, indicating “technical malfunctions in Russia’s air defense system” as the second culprit.

“The plane would have crashed right away if it had occurred. He said, “They exploded meters away.” The majority of the damage was probably caused by missile pieces rather than the warheads.

Putin claims that the black box captured the pilot’s perception of the incident as a collision with a flock of birds, which he reported to Russian air traffic authorities.

According to the Russian leader, the pilot was told to make an emergency landing in Makhachkala, as heard on the tapes, but he chose to head back to his home base before traveling to Kazakhstan.

Putin expressed regret to Azerbaijan once more and pledged Moscow will make every effort to ease tensions, including paying compensation and conducting a legal review of all responsible authorities’ conduct.

Recalling that the airliner went down when he was heading to a meeting in St Petersburg and had to turn back, President Aliyev responded by thanking his Russian colleague for managing this crisis.

Despite the tragedy, according to Aliyev, the two countries’ commercial and economic connections have improved dramatically in 2025, and all other aspects of their bilateral relations have also improved.

After accusing Moscow of concealing the accident’s specifics and denying any responsibility, the president of Azerbaijan declared in July that his country will sue Russia in international tribunals.