The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, acknowledged on Thursday, October 9, the responsibility of the Russian authorities for the crash of the Azerbaijan Airlines plane in December 2024, on the territory of Kazakhstan, when 38 out of the 72 people on board died, reports IPN.

During a meeting with his Azerbaijani counterpart, Ilham Aliyev, Vladimir Putin cited several reasons that caused the plane crash: Ukrainian drone attacks on Caucasian territory and the technical malfunction of the Russian air defense system.

“The two rockets launched did not directly hit the plane, but exploded, possibly self-destructed, about 10 meters away, thus causing the damage. However, the main cause was not the warheads, but most likely, the remnants of the rockets,” explained the leader from the Kremlin.

The airplane was operating a flight from the Azerbaijani capital Baku to the city of Grozny in Russia on December 25, 2024. It deviated from its flight path and attempted an emergency landing near the city of Aktau in western Kazakhstan. The crash of the aircraft resulted in the death of 38 people out of the 72 onboard. 29 people survived.

Then, the authorities in Baku declared that the plane was shot down by a Russian air defense missile, while Moscow refused to acknowledge its responsibility, leading to a diplomatic dispute between the states.