Europe Asia News

The Russian president said that on Christmas Day last year, missiles fired by Russian air defense systems exploded near an Azerbaijan Airlines plane that had taken off from Baku and was preparing to land in Grozny, the capital of Chechnya. The missiles were targeting a Ukrainian drone.

Putin said, “The two missiles launched did not directly hit the aircraft; had they done so, the plane would likely have been destroyed. They exploded about ten meters away for self-destruction purposes.”

“Thus, the damage came not from the warheads but probably from the missile debris itself. The pilot thought it was a bird strike and reported it to Russian air traffic controllers; all of this was recorded in the so-called ‘black boxes’,” he added.

Putin warned that a full investigation into the cause of the crash “will probably take a little more time.”

Azerbaijani authorities had earlier stated that the plane was accidentally hit by fire from Russian air defense systems.

The plane, which was attempting to land in western Kazakhstan, crashed, killing 38 of the 67 people on board.

Days later, Putin apologized to Aliyev for what he called a “tragic accident,” but avoided taking responsibility.

Aliyev criticized Moscow for trying to “cover up” the incident.

However, on Thursday, he thanked Putin for personally overseeing the progress of the investigation.

Aliyev said to Putin, “I would like once again to express my gratitude for bringing up this matter during our meeting.”