Putin apologizes for airline crash, does not take responsibility
Putin apologized for the “tragic incident” in Russian airspace, but the Kremlin did not take responsibility for downing the Azerbaijan Airlines flight.
Updated December 28, 2024
By Mary Ilyushina
Russian President Vladimir Putin has apologized to the leader of Azerbaijan for the crash of a passenger airliner following an unspecified “tragic incident” in Russian airspace, the Kremlin said Saturday.
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Neither Putin nor his government has taken responsibility for downing the Azerbaijan Airlines flight that crashed in Kazakhstan on Christmas Day. The White House said Friday that evidence suggests the plane was brought down by Russia.
Thirty-eight passengers and crew were killed; 29 survived.
Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243 departed from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, with 67 people on board shortly before 8 a.m. local time Wednesday, for Grozny, the capital of Chechnya in Russia. It was diverted from Grozny mid-flight and later crashed near Aktau in southwestern Kazakhstan, about 270 miles east across the Caspian Sea.
Putin and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev discussed the repeated attempts by the on-schedule plane to land at the Grozny airport, the Kremlin said in a summary of the call. Putin told Aliyev that the area had been attacked by Ukrainian drones that activated Russian air defense.
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“Vladimir Putin apologized in connection with the fact that the tragic incident occurred in Russian airspace, and once again expressed deep and sincere condolences to the families of the victims, wished a speedy recovery to the injured,” the Kremlin said.
The Azerbaijani government, in its own readout of the call, said Putin “apologized for the fact” that the Embraer-190 “was subjected to external physical and technical impact in Russian airspace, which resulted in a tragic incident.”
Aliyev, the Azerbaijani government said, “emphasized that there are numerous holes in the fuselage of the plane, passengers and crew members, while still in the air, were injured by foreign particles that pierced the skin and entered the cabin of the plane, and that the testimonies of the surviving flight attendants and passengers of the plane confirm the fact of external physical and technical impact.”
If Russian fire brought down the aircraft, it would be the second such incident linked to the country’s war in Ukraine. In 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down by a surface-to-air missile over eastern Ukraine. All 298 passengers and crew members on board were killed.
A Dutch court in 2022 convicted two Russians and a Ukrainian who held senior roles in separatist militias of murder for their roles. The court determined that the missile launch was probably intentional, though it was unclear whether the defendants knew that they were firing at a civilian aircraft. Russian authorities have repeatedly denied responsibility.
Russian investigators have opened a criminal case in the downing of the Azerbaijan Airlines flight, the Kremlin said, including into whether there were violations of traffic safety and air transport operation rules. “Primary investigative actions are being carried out; civilian and military specialists are being interrogated,” it said. Russian officials initially blamed the crash on weather and a collision with a flock of birds.
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An Azerbaijan Airlines statement on Dec. 27 blamed “interference” for the Christmas Day plane crash that killed 38 people. (Video: Alisa Shodiyev Kaff/The Washington Post)
Before the call, Putin held a session of the Security Council to discuss the “interaction with partners in the Caspian region.”
Kanat Bozymbayev, the head of the Kazakh commission probing the crash, said authorities had appointed “a comprehensive ballistic, explosive and trace evidence examination” to learn “when the explosion occurred and why.”
The Russian flight regulator Rosaviatsia said Friday that conditions at Grozny Airport were “complicated” by a Ukrainian drone attack and thick fog, Russian state news agency Tass reported. Security measures required all aircraft to leave the area near Grozny Airport, the agency’s head said.
Some Azerbaijani lawmakers have pressured Aliyev’s government to “be more principled” in demanding an apology from Moscow and urging Russia to end its war in Ukraine.
The United States has “seen some early indications that would certainly point to the possibility that this jet was brought down by Russian air defense systems,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters Friday. He said the evidence went beyond widely circulated images of the damaged aircraft, but he did not provide details. The U.S. government has offered to assist Kazakh and Azerbaijani officials in the investigation, Kirby said.
Azerbaijan Airlines said Friday that preliminary findings showed the plane crashed “due to external physical and technical interference.”
Rashad Nabiyev, the country’s transport minister, cited “the appearance of the plane’s wreckage on the ground and eyewitness testimony,” according to Azerbaijani media. He said passengers and crew were injured by “various cutting objects”; some, he said, “reported hearing three explosions over Grozny.”
“The sounds of explosions could be heard from outside,” he said, “after which something hit the plane.”
Flight attendant Aidan Rahimli told Azerbaijan’s Xezer Xeber news website that she felt three loud blows as if something was impacting the plane from outside.
“After the first impact, the oxygen masks fell down in the cabin, and we rushed to check what had happened,” Rahimli said. A second impact then wounded a fellow flight attendant, she said. As she bandaged his left hand, she said, they felt a third impact.
Upon crashing, the plane broke into two parts. The tail remained largely intact, but the nose immediately caught fire. Pilots Igor Kshnyakin, the flight captain, and Aleksandr Kalyaninov, the first officer, were killed.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he also spoke to Aliyev and “expressed condolences to him and the people of Azerbaijan regarding the tragic crash.”
“Russia must provide clear explanations and stop spreading disinformation,” Zelensky wrote in a post on X. “Photos and videos clearly show the damage to the aircraft’s fuselage, including punctures and dents, which strongly point to a strike by an air defense missile. We will support Azerbaijan in this situation with all necessary means and call on other countries to assist as well.”
Turkmenistan’s national carrier suspended flights to Moscow for a month. El Al, FlyDubai, Qazaq Air and Azerbaijan Airlines have also suspended at least some flights to Russia.
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By Mary Ilyushina
Mary Ilyushina, a reporter on the Foreign Desk of The Washington Post, covers Russia and the region. She began her career in independent Russian media before joining CNN’s Moscow bureau as a field producer in 2017. She has been with The Post since 2021. She speaks Russian, English, Ukrainian and Arabic.follow on X@maryilyushina
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