The Azerbaijan Airlines crash and Russia's role in it
Overview · reviewed October 28, 2026
On December 25, 2024, an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet crashed in Kazakhstan, killing 38 people and injuring all 29 survivors.[1]A US official said early indications suggested a Russian anti-aircraft system had hit it,[2] and in October 2025 Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged for the first time that Russia's air defenses were to blame.[3]
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A US official said early indications suggested a Russian anti-aircraft system had hit it,[2] and in October 2025 Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged for the first time that Russia's air defenses were to blame.[3]
Coverage over time
Share of tracked outlets · weekly (UTC)
37%0%
Dec 20242026this week
LeftCenterRightLighter bar: this week so far
Each bar is the share of the outlets on our Left / Center / Right rating scale that we tracked publishing that week which carried reporting on this story, split by the outlets' ratings. We track more outlets now than in the archive, so a share keeps earlier and later weeks comparable. An outlet counts once a week however much it published, and outlets in one ownership or syndication group count as one on each side they appear on. A rating describes the outlet, not the report. A gap means no such reports were collected that week, not that nothing was reported anywhere. Weeks run Monday to Sunday in UTC, so a report published on a Sunday evening in US Eastern time counts in the next week. 4 more outlets off the scale (not rated, or outside the left-right graphs) also reported; they are not in this chart. See them.
Weekly counts, outlets and reports (2 weeks with coverage)
Outlets on the rating scale that carried this story each week, of the outlets tracked that week, newest first
Week of (UTC)
Left
Center
Right
Of tracked
Share
Receipts
Oct 6, 2025
3
2
0
5 of 181
3%
Dec 23, 2024
18
41
13
72 of 192
38%
Latest coverage
The newest reporting in this story's record.
Oct 8, 2025 · first reported · Headline from Military.com
Azerbaijan held a nationwide day of mourning,[1] and Azerbaijan Airlines said an early investigation found that the jet had experienced "physical and technical external interference."[4] Putin's admission came in an apparent bid to ease tensions with Azerbaijan.[3]
