Putin: Two Russian missiles near Azerbaijan Airlines jet caused crash

Russian President Vladimir Putin told Azerbaijan’s leader on Thursday that two Russian air-defense missiles detonated several meters from an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet as Russian forces engaged what he described as Ukrainian drones, an incident he said led to the plane’s crash last December that killed 38 people. Putin made the remarks during a bilateral meeting in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, where he and President Ilham Aliyev were attending a summit of former Soviet states.

The Embraer 190, Flight J28243, was en route from Baku to Grozny on December 25 when it disappeared from radar near Russia’s Caspian Sea coast and later crashlanded near Aktau, Kazakhstan, after diverting from southern Russia. Putin said Russian air defenses had been responding to an incursion of three Ukrainian drones and that two missiles fired in that operation exploded about 10 meters from the airliner. He said the missiles did not strike the aircraft directly and that damage likely resulted from missile debris rather than warheads, a conclusion he said is supported by cockpit recordings and the flight recorders.

Azerbaijani authorities and Russian officials have said the aircraft attempted an...