Putin Admits AZAL Plane Crash in December 2024 Was Caused by Russian Anti-Aircraft Missiles

Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) — Russian President Vladimir Putin, during a meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Dushanbe on 9 October, acknowledged that the damage sustained by the Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) passenger aircraft that crashed in December 2024 was caused by Russian surface-to-air missiles. The meeting took place on the sidelines of the CIS Heads of States Summit.

According to Putin, on the day of the disaster, a Russian air defense system launched two missiles after detecting a Ukrainian drone in the airspace. He clarified that the missiles did not hit the aircraft directly but exploded several meters away — approximately ten meters from it. The main damage, the Russian president said, was caused by missile fragments rather than direct impact from warheads.

Putin also noted that the aircraft’s crew had been advised to land in Makhachkala, but the pilots decided to continue their flight to their home airport and then onward to Kazakhstan. He promised that Russia would take measures to provide compensation and conduct a legal assessment of the actions of all officials involved, though he added that more time would be needed to draw final conclusions.

For his part, Ilham Aliyev thanked Putin for the information provided and for the Russian president’s personal oversight of the investigation into the causes of the crash.

The AZAL Embraer 190 aircraft, operating a flight from Baku to Grozny, crashed near Aktau on December 25, 2024. There were 67 people on board, including five crew members. Thirty-eight people were killed, and 29 survived. Among the passengers were citizens of Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Upon impact, the aircraft was destroyed and partially burned.

In February 2025, Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Transport published a preliminary report stating that the aircraft’s fuselage bore numerous damages likely caused by external objects.

Azerbaijan had repeatedly demanded that Russia acknowledge responsibility for the crash, ensure a transparent investigation, punish those responsible, and compensate the victims’ families. In July 2025, Ilham Aliyev announced that documentation was being prepared for submission to international judicial bodies, noting that Baku had not received an official response from the Russian authorities for seven months.