Disinfo watchdog: Russians admit passenger jet crash in Kazakhstan caused by Russia’s air defense

The Russians themselves admit that the Azerbaijan Airlines plane, which crashed near Aktau in Kazakhstan on December 25, was hit by a Russian air defense missile.

This was reported by the head of the Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council, Andriy Kovalenko, Ukrinform reports.

Kovalenko notes that the Russians, who have read the transcript of the crew radio communications on the Baku-Grozny flight, themselves admit that the Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet was hit by air defense (the SAM missile containing shrapnel).

"I should note once again what I said yesterday. Birds don’t make holes in the fuselage midflight. The passengers clearly filmed this," he wrote.

According to Kovalenko, the explosion of the SAM missile outside the jet damaged it, disabling its systems. “At the link above, the Russian channel even names the zone where the tragedy could have occurred as a result of the Russian air defense operation,” he added.

Russia never closed the airspace over Grozny, and the plane was also not given permission to land in Grozny or Makhachkala for a reason, the official stresses.

“Only professionalism of the plane’s pilots prevented the Russians from turning this story into a provocation against Ukraine. And now Russia will do everything to hide their own responsibility for the plane crash and people’s deaths,” Kovalenko emphasized.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet en route Baku–Grozny crashed on December 25 near the city of Aktau, western Kazakhstan. Of the 67 people on board, 38 died.

Later, reports emerged that an Embraer 190 aircraft of the Azerbaijani airline was shot down by a Russian air defense system.