MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said Russia’s air defenses were responsible for shooting down an Azerbaijani airliner in December that killed 38 people in his first admission of blame for the crash.

Putin made the statement at a meeting with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev in Tajikistan’s capital of Dushanbe, where both are attending a summit of the former Soviet nations.

The Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet crashed on Dec. 25, 2024, while on a flight from Baku to Grozny, the regional capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya.

Azerbaijani authorities said the jet was accidentally hit by fire from Russian air defenses and then tried to land in western Kazakhstan when it crashed, killing 38 of 67 people aboard.

Putin has apologized to Azerbaijan’s president for what he called a “tragic incident” but stopped short of acknowledging responsibility. Aliyev, meanwhile, criticized Moscow for trying to “hush up” the incident.