Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged on Thursday that Russian air defenses were responsible for downing an Azerbaijani Airlines plane last December, resulting in the death of 38 people. This marks the first public admission of Moscow’s responsibility for the incident, in an effort to ease tensions with Azerbaijan.

Putin explained that missiles fired by Russian defenses targeting a Ukrainian drone exploded near the Azerbaijani Airlines plane, which was coming from Baku and preparing to land in Grozny, the capital of Russia’s Chechen Republic, on December 25, 2024. The incident occurred amid ongoing Ukrainian drone attacks deep inside Russia.

During a meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, where they were attending a summit of former Soviet states, Putin pledged to hold those responsible accountable and provide necessary compensation to the victims’ families.

Azerbaijani authorities said the Embraer 190 plane was mistakenly hit by Russian fire, then attempted to land in western Kazakhstan, where it crashed, killing 38 of the 67 people on board.

Days after the incident, Putin apologized to Aliyev for what he described as a “tragic accident” without explicitly admitting responsibility, while Aliyev criticized Moscow for trying to “conceal” the incident.