Putin admits Russian missiles downed Azerbaijan Airlines flight

Russian President Vladimir Putin has formally acknowledged that an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet was destroyed by debris from Russian air defense missiles, marking the first direct admission of responsibility for the December 2024 crash that killed 38 people.

Putin acknowledges Russian responsibility

Speaking alongside Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, on October 9, 2025, Putin said that Russian anti-aircraft missiles were fired in response to Ukrainian drone activity near Grozny, Chechnya, at the time of the tragedy.

“The two missiles that were fired did not directly hit the plane but exploded, perhaps by self-destruction, about ten meters away,” Putin said. “That is why the destruction occurred, not by combat elements but by debris from the missiles.”

The Russian leader added that Moscow would provide compensation to the victims’ families and conduct a full investigation into the chain of decisions that led to the incident. Aliyev thanked Putin for “personally following this case” and described the admission as a “positive development” in relations between the two countries.

The December 2024 crash

The aircraft, an Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer E190 registered 4K-AZ65, was operating flight J28243 from Baku-Heydar Aliyev International Airport (GYD) to Grozny Airport (GRV) when it crashed in western Kazakhstan on December 25, 2024. The jet was carrying 62 passengers and five crew members.

According to initial reports, the flight had attempted to land in Grozny before being redirected to Kazakhstan, where it ultimately went down. Thirty-eight people were killed, and 29 survived.

Debris by design: how anti-aircraft missiles work

Investigations by Azerbaijani authorities have pointed to the Russian Pantsir-S1 air defense system as the source of the missiles involved. Fragments reportedly recovered from the wreckage matched components of the Pantsir’s 57E6-E missile, a weapon widely deployed by Russian forces for short- to medium-range air defense.

Putin’s explanation that the aircraft was hit only by “debris” actually aligns with how the Pantsir’s missiles are engineered to function. The 57E6-E carries a high-explosive fragmentation warhead that detonates when a proximity fuze senses a target nearby, scattering a cloud of high-velocity metal fragments designed to shred an aircraft’s fuselage and disable vital systems.

This same principle is what destroyed Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014, though in that case a much larger Buk missile was involved. In both incidents, the lethal effect came not from a direct hit but from the shrapnel cloud designed to obliterate an aircraft flying within its radius.

Diplomatic fallout

The disaster triggered a sharp diplomatic crisis between Moscow and Baku. Azerbaijan temporarily closed the local offices of a Russian state media outlet and detained several Russian nationals, while Russia made arrests among the Azerbaijani diaspora.

The meeting between Putin and Aliyev on October 9, 2025, was their first since the crash, signaling a possible thaw in relations after months of tension.The post Putin admits Russian missiles downed Azerbaijan Airlines flight appeared first on AeroTime.

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