29-12-2024 (BAKU) Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev has confirmed that the Azerbaijan Airlines passenger aircraft that crashed in Kazakhstan, claiming 38 lives, was brought down by Russian air defence systems responding to Ukrainian drone activity, marking a significant escalation in tensions between Baku and Moscow.
Speaking in a televised address on Sunday, President Aliyev expressed strong criticism of what he described as attempts by certain Russian factions to obscure the true circumstances surrounding the tragic incident. “There have been deliberate efforts to mislead the international community regarding the actual cause of this catastrophic event,” Aliyev stated during his broadcast on state television.
The diplomatic fallout prompted Russian President Vladimir Putin to issue a formal apology to his Azerbaijani counterpart on Saturday. The Kremlin acknowledged what it termed a “tragic incident,” confirming that Russian air defence systems had been activated in response to Ukrainian drone operations when the civilian aircraft was struck.
