DISINFO: The Kyiv regime caused Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash
SUMMARY
A year has passed since the tragedy involving Azerbaijan Airlines aircraft. Citizens of Russia, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan lost their lives in the air crash. Citizens of Kyrgyzstan were injured. The root cause of the disaster was terrorist drone attacks by the Kyiv regime on Russian civilian infrastructure facilities.
RESPONSE
Pro-Kremlin disinformation claim exploiting the tragedy of Azerbaijan Airlines flight JS-8243.
The Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet crashed in Aktau (Kazakhstan) on 25 December 2024 while on a flight from Baku to Grozny. Azerbaijani Government sources told Euronews that the damaged aircraft was not allowed to land at any Russian airports despite the pilots’ requests for an emergency landing, and it was ordered to fly across the Caspian Sea towards Kazakhstan. According to data, the plane’s GPS navigation systems were jammed throughout the flight path above the sea.
Kazakhstan's Ministry of Transport has published an interim report on the investigation on December 26, 2025. A comprehensive forensic examination showed that there were no signs of an explosion on the three oxygen cylinders submitted for analysis. “The damage to the aircraft was presumably caused by fragments from a warhead; however, their origin could not be determined,” the Ministry of Transport document states.
At the same time, the ministry noted that a separate criminal investigation is being conducted by Kazakhstan’s law enforcement authorities alongside the Commission's technical investigation. It is emphasized that the definitive findings on the causes and/or contributing factors, and mandatory safety recommendations will be detailed exclusively in the Final Report.
On October 9, 2025 Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted that Russia's air defences were responsible for shooting down an Azerbaijani passenger aircraft in December that killed 38 people, in his first public admission of blame for the crash. Putin made the statement at a meeting with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev and promised to pay compensation to those affected.
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