Kremlin: Putin has no plans to address AZAL plane crash

Russian President Vladimir Putin does not intend to make a public statement regarding the recent crash of an AZAL airline plane near Aktau, a city in Kazakhstan, said Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.

"No, there are no plans for a statement [on the plane crash]," Peskov said, Caliber.Az reports via Russian media.

To recall, on December 25, 2024, Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243, an Embraer 190AR, tragically crashed near Aktau, Kazakhstan, while attempting an emergency landing. The flight, which was en route from Baku, Azerbaijan, to Grozny, Russia, carried 67 people, including 62 passengers and five crew members. Among the passengers, there were 42 Azerbaijanis, 16 Russians, six Kazakhs, and three Kyrgyz nationals. The disaster claimed 38 lives, with 29 survivors, including three crew members.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the aircraft was hit by a Russian surface-to-air missile, the Pantsir-S1, while Russia was responding to a Ukrainian drone attack over Chechnya. Despite initial attempts by Russia to obscure the cause, the situation became clearer, and on December 28, President Vladimir Putin expressed condolences to Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, who demanded accountability and compensation for the victims.

New findings, published by Caliber.Az on January 24, confirmed the missile strike and identified both the individual who fired on the plane and the officer who authorized the attack. The investigation also revealed that before being struck, the plane was affected by electronic warfare, which disrupted its navigation systems and impeded the crew's ability to control the aircraft.

By Aghakazim Guliyev