Aliyev says Russia shot down Azerbaijani airliner by mistake
Azerbaijan’s president says the country’s passenger jet was shot down by Russia, though he says the strike was not deliberate.
2024-12-29 deepened a diplomatic crisis between Azerbaijan and Russia after President Ilham Aliyev said the Azerbaijani passenger jet that crashed in Kazakhstan was hit by Russian fire and then obscured by Moscow’s initial explanations. Aliyev told Azerbaijani state television that the plane had been shot down by Russia, though not intentionally, and accused Russian officials of trying to “hush up” the incident for days.
The language was unusually direct. Aliyev said the aircraft was struck from the ground while flying near Russia and then rendered uncontrollable by electronic warfare. He said Azerbaijan wanted three things from Moscow: a public apology, an admission of guilt, and punishment and compensation for the victims. AP reported that Putin had already apologized and called the crash a tragic incident, but had stopped short of accepting responsibility. That gap between apology and admission is now the center of the dispute.
The crash killed 38 of the 67 people on board, making it a major civil aviation disaster. The plane had been flying from Baku to Grozny when it diverted across the Caspian Sea and crashed near Aktau, Kazakhstan. Russian authorities said air defenses were firing near Grozny at the time to counter a Ukrainian drone strike, while survivors reportedly heard loud noises as the plane circled. The competing accounts show why the crash is not just an accident investigation but a test of trust between governments already strained by regional tensions.
Aliyev also rejected Russia’s preference for the Interstate Aviation Committee to lead the inquiry, saying the body could not be fully objective because of its Russian makeup. Instead, he said Azerbaijan wanted an international investigation. That demand matters because control of the investigative process will shape whether the final findings are seen as credible or preordained. The Kremlin said a joint probe by Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan was underway, but that does not resolve the deeper argument over accountability.
This episode also fits a grim recent history. AP noted that it is the second deadly civil aviation accident linked to the war in Ukraine, after Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was downed over eastern Ukraine in 2014. The comparison underscores how fighting near air corridors can turn civilian aircraft into casualties of broader conflict.
For Azerbaijan, the issue is no longer only what happened to the plane. It is whether Russia will accept blame clearly enough to satisfy a neighboring state whose leader is now publicly accusing Moscow of concealment. On 2024-12-29, Aliyev made the dispute harder to contain and much harder for Russia to treat as a simple accident.
