President Vladimir Putin on Thursday told Azerbaijan's leader Ilham Aliyev that Russia's air defense were to blame for downing an Azerbaijani jetliner in December that killed 38 people, his first admission of responsibility for the crash in an effort to ease tensions between the neighbors.
Putin said the missiles fired by Russian air defenses to target a Ukrainian drone exploded near the Azerbaijan Airlines plane flying from Baku as it was preparing to land in Grozny, the regional capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya, on Dec. 25, 2024. Ukrainian drones have regularly struck deep inside Russia.
At a meeting in Tajikistan's capital of Dushanbe, where both leaders were attending a summit of the former Soviet nations, Putin again offered his apologies to Aliyev, pledged to hold those responsible accountable and provide compensation to those affected.
Video footage showed Putin and Aliyev shaking hands and smiling before a bilateral meeting.
Azerbaijani authorities had said the Embraer 190 jet was hit accidentally by Russian fire, then tried to land in western Kazakhstan, where it crashed and killed 38 of 67 people aboard.
