Putin admits Russia shot down passenger plane killing 38 people

Vladimir Putin has admitted it was Russian air defences which shot down an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger plane and killed 38 people.

There had been 67 on board the aircraft on Christmas Day last year when it was heading from Azerbaijan’s capital Baku to Grozny in Russia.

At the time it was strongly believed that Russian air defences had shot down the plane and was responsible for the killing, with Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev declaring ‘with complete clarity’ that Russia shot the plane down and accusing the country of trying to ‘hush up’ the deaths.

There were survivors of the plane crash who described their ordeal in the skies and alleged leaked audio was used in Azerbaijan to claim that Russia knew the aircraft was a passenger plane.

At the time of the crash Putin called it a ‘tragic incident’ but he did not acknowledge Russian responsibility – until yesterday (9 October).

Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243 was shot down by Russia on Christmas Day, 2024, Putin has finally admitted it was their fault (ISSA TAZHENBAYEV/AFP via Getty Images)

The Russian leader claimed that air defences targeting a Ukrainian drone experienced a ‘technical malfunction’ resulting in two missiles exploding 10 metres away from the passenger plane.

He said: “The Russian side will obviously do everything to provide compensation and give legal assessment to all responsible officials’ action.

“Of course, these words related to this tragedy, aimed at supporting – morally supporting – the families do not solve the main problem: We can’t bring back to life those who died as a result of the tragedy.”

Azerbaijan president Ilham Aliyev said he hoped ‘the messages we are sending today to our societies will meet a positive response’.

Some of the final words spoken on board Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243 itself came when a flight attendant told everyone to fasten their seat belts and attempted to reassure passengers that ‘everything will be fine’. She was one of many to die in the crash.

When the plane was caught in the explosions the pilot decided not to attempt landing it in the Caspian Sea. Instead, it crash landed in Kazakhstan and the front section exploded into a fireball.

Flight attendant Zulfugar Asadov said: “If the plane had touched down with both the front and rear landing gears at the same time, no one would have survived.

“When the front landing gear touched the ground, the plane broke into two pieces, and the front cockpit was torn off.”