Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged that Russian air defenses shot down an Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 passenger jet in December 2024. This was the first time Russia has publicly accepted blame for the crash that killed 38 people. The Russian president made the admission during a meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Dushanbe on Thursday during a regional summit in Tajikistan.
On Dec. 25, Flight 8432 was en route from Baku to Grozny when it went down near Kazakhstan’s Aktau Airport. Azerbaijani sources maintained from the beginning that the aircraft was struck by a Russian surface-to-air missile fired amid drone activity over Grozny.
Following the incident, Azerbaijan accused Moscow of obstructing the investigation and refusing the aircraft’s requests for an emergency landing at Russian airports. President Aliyev later criticized what he described as attempts to “hush up” the event and announced plans to pursue legal action in international courts.
In July, Aliyev stated, “We know what happened and we can prove it,” citing evidence that the plane’s satellite systems were jammed over the Caspian Sea.
Putin’s admission this week marks a shift from earlier statements in which he apologized but stopped short of accepting responsibility for the tragedy. The admission also comes follow recent failed attempts by Russia to rejoin ICAO, in part blocked due to Russia’s role in this and other aviation incidents, like the 2014 downing of a Malaysia Airlines flight.
Absolutely amazing that Russia expects to fly military aircraft over other countries yet has been directly responsible for many civilian airliner crashes with impunity.
Not to mention jamming GPS signals in Eastern Europe on a regular basis…