Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov recalled that the AZAL passenger plane that crashed on December 25, 2024, was shot down due to the fault of the Russian Ministry of Defense.

"Baku's position on the AZAL plane crash remains firm and principled – it was a mistake by the Russian Ministry of Defense. Russia must fulfill the promises made by Russian President Vladimir Putin during his meeting with the President of Azerbaijan in October 2025. We expect the Russian side to take all necessary actions, provide a legal assessment of the incident, and pay compensation," Bayramov stated.

On December 25, 2024, an Embraer 190 flying from Baku to Grozny crashed near Aktau, Kazakhstan. Of the 67 people on board, 29 survived. Initially, the cause of the crash was not disclosed, but it was later revealed that the plane had come under fire from Russian air defense systems during an attack by Ukrainian drones over Chechnya.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev supported this theory and demanded that Russia admit guilt, punish those responsible, and pay compensation, which led to a deterioration in Russian-Azerbaijani relations. In October 2025, after ten months of silence, Russian President Vladimir Putin, during a personal meeting with Aliyev in Dushanbe, for the first time acknowledged Moscow's involvement in the incident, blaming Ukrainian drones for the tragedy. Aliyev accepted the apology and promises of compensation and punishment for the perpetrators.