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Russian President Vladimir Putin told Azerbaijan’s leader that two Russian missiles had detonated near an Azerbaijan Airlines plane last year after Ukrainian drones entered Russian airspace, promising compensation to those affected. Flight J2-8243, travelling from Baku to Grozny, crash-landed on December 25 near Aktau in Kazakhstan after diverting from southern Russia, where Ukrainian drones were reported attacking several targets. At least 38 people were killed.
Video footage on Thursday showed Putin and Aliyev shaking hands and smiling before a bilateral meeting in Tajikistan, during which Putin discussed the plane crash. Last year, Putin issued a rare public apology to Aliyev for what the Kremlin called a “tragic incident” over Russia, in which the plane crashed after Russian air defences were deployed against Ukrainian drones.
On Thursday, he elaborated further: “Of course, everything that is required in such tragic cases will be done by the Russian side on compensation and a legal assessment of all official things will be given,” Putin said. “It is our duty, I repeat once again… to give an objective assessment of everything that happened and to identify the true causes.”
Putin explained that two Russian air defence missiles had detonated several metres from the plane after Ukrainian drones entered Russian airspace. The Embraer jet, flying from Azerbaijan’s capital Baku to Grozny in Chechnya, then travelled another 280 miles (450 km) across the Caspian Sea while badly damaged.
Aliyev had expressed anger over the crash and publicly criticised Moscow’s initial responses, which he said sought to cover up the cause of the incident.
