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Azerbaijan’s head of state Ilham Aliyev has announced that documents are being prepared with the aim of filing a case against Russia in international courts, Minval reports. The claims are connected to the crash Azerbaijani Airlines Flight 8243, which went down in Aktau, Kazakhstan on December 25, 2024 after being struck by Russian air defenses while attempting to land at its intended destination of Grozny. Aliyev stated that the circumstances of the incident are “as clear as day.”
As Aliyev pointed out, the Azerbaijani side has not received a clear response from the Russian authorities. Azerbaijan's Prosecutor General has been submitting official enquiries to the Russian Investigative Committee, but the agency continues to cite an “ongoing investigation” as the reason why further information cannot be released. Aliyev characterized the Russian side’s approach as “lacking constructiveness.”
He also drew parallels to the probe into the crash of Flight MH17, which was shot down by Russian Buk anti-aircraft system No. 332 over “separatist-controlled” eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014. Despite the publicity around that earlier case, official accusations from European courts against Russian officials have been slow in coming. Aliyev noted:
“We are ready to wait ten years if necessary, but justice must prevail. We are currently preparing a case file to submit to international judicial bodies regarding this matter.”
Aliyev emphasized that the current uncertainty is negatively affecting the prospects of Russian-Azerbaijani relations. The Azerbaijani leader demanded that Russia take the blame, hold to account those responsible for the crash, compensate the families of the victims, and reimburse AZAL for the loss of the aircraft.
On the evening of Dec. 25, 2024, an Embraer 190AR passenger plane, flight J2‑8243 operated by AZAL and flying from Baku to Grozny, crashed near Aktau, Kazakhstan, killing 38 of the 67 people on board. The crash was caused by a surface-to-air missile explosion, likely launched from a Russian Pantsir-S1 air defense system. Following a large-scale drone attack on southern Russia that day, the country’s air defense systems had been placed on high alert. Investigators later found shrapnel damage in the wreckage of the plane that was consistent with the detonation of an anti-aircraft missile. The flight crew had also managed to report an “external interference” before losing contact.
Russian-Azerbaijani tensions worsened further following a large-scale raid by Russian law enforcement targeting Azerbaijani nationals in Yekaterinburg on June 27, during which two Azerbaijanis were killed. Amid the growing conflict, Azerbaijani media published a written statement — allegedly composed by Russian captain Dmitry Paladichuk — regarding the strike on the AZAL aircraft. According to The Insider, the statement is likely authentic, and the outlet has also obtained a recording of a phone call in which Paladichuk confirms that he wrote the statement “to the army commander after the shooting at the aircraft.”