Putin admits Russia shot down passenger plane, killing 38

Russian missiles detonated near the Azerbaijan Airlines plane on Christmas last year

The Russian president said Russia's air defences were responsible for shooting down the Azerbaijani passenger jet, killing a total of 38 people.

Putin claimed that missiles fired by Russian air defences meant to target a Ukrainian drone exploded near the Azerbaijani Airlines plane, which was preparing to land in Grozny, the regional capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya.

"The two missiles that were launched did not hit the plane directly; if that had happened, it would have crashed on the spot, but they exploded, perhaps as a self-destruction measure, a few metres away, about 10m," Putin said.

"And so the damage was caused, mainly not by the warheads, but most likely by the debris from the missiles themselves. That is why the pilot perceived it as a collision with a flock of birds, which he reported to Russian air traffic controllers, and all this is recorded in the so-called 'black boxes'."

While speaking at a meeting with Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev in Tajikistan's capital Dushanbe, Putin swore to punish those responsible for the mistake and compensate the victims.

"It is our duty to give an objective assessment of everything that happened and to identify the true causes."

Putin said it would "probably take some more time" to fully understand the cause of the crash, per Sky News.

Azerbaijani authorities had previously said the jet was accidentally hit by fire from Russian air defences.

When it then tried to land in western Kazakhstan, it crashed, killing 38 of the 67 people on board.

Days after the incident, Putin apologised to Aliyev for what he deemed a "tragic accident", however, he didn't take responsibility.

Mr Aliyev then criticised Moscow for trying to sweep the incident under the rug.

Yesterday, Aliyev thanked the Russian president for personally monitoring the progress of the investigation.

"I would like to express my gratitude once again for the fact that you deemed it necessary to highlight this issue at our meeting," Mr Aliyev told Mr Putin.

The crash which happened on Christmas Day of last year marks the second deadly aviation incident linked to Russia's conflict in Ukraine, after Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down by a Russian missile in 2014, killing all 298 people aboard.