Russian President Vladimir Putin told Azerbaijan's leader on October 9 that two Russian missiles had detonated beside an Azerbaijan Airlines plane last year after Ukrainian drones entered Russian airspace, an incident that killed 38 people.

In his most candid admission to date that Moscow was responsible for the deadly event, Putin again offered his apologies to President Ilham Aliyev and promised compensation. Flight J2-8243, traveling from Baku to Grozny, crash-landed near Aktau in Kazakhstan on December 25 after diverting from southern Russia amid reported Ukrainian drone attacks. Thirty-eight people were killed.