The Russian president has detailed the chain of events that caused a deadly 2024 incident involving an Azerbaijan Airlines flight

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Russian President Vladimir Putin during a meeting at the Government Residence in Dushanbe. © Sputnik / Grigory Sysoev

An incursion of Ukrainian drones was the root cause of a deadly 2024 crash of a Russia-bound Azerbaijan Airlines plane, President Vladimir Putin has said during a meeting with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev.

Speaking ahead of bilateral talks hosted by Tajikistan, Putin said that AZAL flight 8243 was damaged “after Russian air defenses tracked three drones that crossed the Russian border on the night of the tragedy,” one of which “was in the air” at the time the civilian plane was hit.

“The second cause was technical malfunctions in the Russian air defense system. Two missiles were fired, but they did not strike the plane directly,” Putin added. He said the projectiles likely self-destructed some ten meters from the aircraft, which was “most likely was hit by debris rather than the submunitions” of a Russian interceptor.

 

READ MORE: Kremlin responds to possible lawsuit from Azerbaijan over deadly air crash

Putin noted that a hit with submunitions during a regular anti-air engagement would have caused immediate catastrophic damage rather than the effect that the plane crew mistook for a collision with a bird.

The incident took place in December 2024 near the Russian city of Grozny. The crew of the Embraer 190 passenger aircraft tried to divert the flight, but it ultimately crash-landed near Aktau, Kazakhstan, killing 38 people and injuring 29 others.

Putin said all the details need to be fully analyzed and pledged that Russia would meet all its obligations in terms of compensation, which the families of the victims could be awarded. He also pledged a “legal assessment” of the actions of everyone involved.

The Azerbaijani president thanked Putin for the update and expressed confidence that the Russian investigation would “objectively get to the bottom” of the tragedy.

Aliyev previously said a lawsuit was being prepared against Russia for its role in the tragedy, for which Moscow has expressed its condolences on multiple occasions. The Kremlin said a full investigation needs to be completed first. Relations between the two nations notably deteriorated following the incident.