Putin admits to Russia role in 2024 Azerbaijan jet crash that killed 38

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said Russia’s air defences were responsible for shooting down an Azerbaijani airliner in December that killed 38 people in his first admission of blame for the crash.

He made the statement at a meeting with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliev in Tajikistan’s capital of Dushanbe, where both are attending a summit of the former Soviet nations. The Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet crashed on December 25, 2024, while on a flight from Baku to Grozny, the regional capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya.

The Azerbaijani authorities said the jet was accidentally hit by fire from Russian air defences, then tried to land in western Kazakhstan when it crashed, killing 38 of 67 people aboard. Putin has apologised to Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev for what he called a “tragic incident”. Aliyev, meanwhile, criticised Moscow for trying to “hush up” the incident. He has also promised compensation to those affected.

Flight J2-8243, en route from Baku to the Chechen capital Grozny, crash-landed on December 25 near Aktau in Kazakhstan after diverting from southern Russia, where Ukrainian drones were reported to be attacking several targets.

Video footage on Thursday showed Putin and Aliyev shaking hands and smiling before a meeting in Tajikistan at which Putin spoke about the plane crash. “Of course, everything that is required in such tragic cases will be done by the Russian side on compensation and a legal assessment of all official things will be given,” Putin told Aliyev. “It is our duty to give an objective assessment of everything that happened and to identify the true causes.”