October 9, 2025
Vladimir Putin admitted on Thursday that Russian anti-aircraft forces are responsible for the downing of an Azerbaijan Airlines aircraft in December 2024, which cost the lives of 38 people, in his first public admission of responsibility for the disaster, according to a Euronews report.
The President of Russia pledged that Moscow would compensate the families of the victims. The statement was made during his meeting with the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, in the capital of Tajikistan, Dushanbe, where both were participating in a regional summit.
The passenger aircraft crashed on December 25, 2024, in Aktau, Kazakhstan, on a day of intense military drone activity in the region due to the Russia-Ukraine war. The Embraer 190 aircraft was operating a route from Baku to Grozny, Chechnya. Of the passengers, 29 people survived, thanks to the composure and skill of the pilots who lost their lives.
From the beginning, Azerbaijan had accused Russia, specifically a Russian anti-aircraft missile. According to the international news outlet AnewZ, the missile originated from a Russian Armed Forces Pantsir-S system.
Azerbaijani government sources told Euronews that the completely destroyed aircraft was not granted permission to land at any Russian airport, despite the pilots' appeals for an emergency landing. Instead, it was instructed to fly over the Caspian Sea towards Kazakhstan.
Last year, Putin had publicly apologized to Aliyev for the "tragic incident," but without accepting responsibility at the time. The Azerbaijani president had accused Moscow of trying to "cover up" the case.
In July, Aliyev had announced that Azerbaijan was preparing to take legal action against Russia in international courts, claiming that the circumstances of the crash were "clear as day."
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