President Vladimir Putin has admitted to a fatal mistake by his country’s military, revealing that Russian anti-drone missiles were responsible for the downing of an Azerbaijani passenger plane in 2024. The admission came in a direct meeting with Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev, ten months after the disaster killed 38 people.
In his first public statement on the cause, Putin described the event as a “tragedy.” He detailed how Russian air defenses, while attempting to intercept Ukrainian drones, inadvertently caused the passenger jet’s destruction. The drones, he claimed, detonated just “meters away” from the airliner.
The flight from Baku to Grozny met its end on Christmas Day, 2024. It was struck over Russian airspace and crashed in Kazakhstan while attempting an emergency landing. The high death toll and the nature of the incident have placed enormous strain on Moscow’s relationship with Baku.
The admission was met with a sharp response from President Aliyev, who accused Russia of spending the last ten months trying to “hush up” the real cause of the crash. This accusation, made face-to-face, illustrates the complete breakdown of trust between the two leaders.
In the wake of his admission, Putin made promises of restitution. He assured Aliyev that Russia would provide financial compensation for the victims and that the military officials involved would be subjected to a thorough legal review to establish accountability.
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