Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a significant announcement on Thursday, October 9, 2025, admitted that his country’s air defense systems were accountable for the tragic downing of an Azerbaijani airliner last December. This incident resulted in the deaths of 38 individuals, marking Putin’s initial acknowledgment of Russian culpability for the crash.
The admission came during a meeting between President Putin and Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, where both leaders were attending a summit involving former Soviet nations.
The ill-fated Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet, which was en route from Baku to Grozny, the capital of Russia’s Chechnya republic, crashed on December 25, 2024.
Azerbaijani officials had previously stated that the aircraft was inadvertently struck by Russian air defense fire. Following the hit, the jet attempted an emergency landing in western Kazakhstan before ultimately crashing, claiming the lives of 38 out of the 67 people on board.
During their discussion, President Putin offered an apology to President Aliyev, referring to the event as a ‘tragic incident.’ However, he notably refrained from fully accepting responsibility for the actions that led to the crash. In response, President Aliyev openly criticized Moscow for allegedly attempting to ‘hush up’ the severe incident.