Russia will do everything necessary in terms of compensation in connection with the crash of the plane of the Azerbaijani airline AZAL. Russian President Vladimir Putin stated this at a meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, held at the Kokhi Somon residence in Dushanbe on the sidelines of the Central Asia – Russia summit.
The Russian President emphasized that it takes time to finally put an end to the situation with the AZAL plane crash. “Russia will do everything necessary in terms of compensation in connection with the crash of the Azerbaijani airline AZAL and will give a legal assessment of the actions of all officials,” Russian state media quoted the head of state on Thursday, October 9.
Putin reminded Aliyev of his earlier apologies for the fact that the tragedy occurred in the skies over Russia, and once again expressed his most sincere condolences to the families of the victims.
The head of state said that on the day of the disaster the Russian side was tracking “three Ukrainian drones that crossed the border of the Russian Federation.” “Two missiles fired by the air defense system did not hit the plane directly, but exploded a few meters away. The plane was not hit by the damaging elements of the warhead, but, most likely, by debris,” Putin noted.
The Russian President added that the crew of the AZAL plane was offered to land in Makhachkala, but a decision was made to head to the airport base.
Putin noted that he received information about the causes of the disaster, which he conveyed to Aliyev, the day before yesterday. “Before the meeting with you, I contacted Moscow and asked if there were any new investigation data,” the Russian leader said. The President emphasized that it is necessary to give an objective assessment and make public the true reasons for what happened.
An Embraer 190 aircraft, flying a Baku-Grozny flight, crashed on December 25, 2024 near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan. As a result of the disaster, 38 people died, 29 were saved.
Azerbaijani authorities said that the plane was shot down by Russian air defense forces. This incident led to tensions between Azerbaijan and Russia. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev demanded punishment for those responsible for the incident, as well as payment of compensation to the families of the victims and for the downed AZAL plane.