Moscow, Oct 10 : Fragments of detonated Russian missiles may have caused the crash of an Azerbaijani passenger jet in December, and Moscow will pay compensation, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

In a meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in the Tajik capital of Dushanbe, on Thursday, Putin discussed the causes of the accident with Aliyev, saying Russia was tracking three Ukrainian drones crossing its border then and "technical malfunctions" of Russia's air defence system may have been a factor in the crash.

Two missiles exploded near the plane, possibly through the self-destruction mechanism, Putin said, adding that missile fragments most likely led to damage to the aircraft, Xinhua news agency reported.

Putin said that, according to black box recordings, the pilot was advised to make an emergency landing in the Russian city of Makhachkala after a perceived collision with birds, but he decided to return to his home base and then to Kazakhstan.

"Naturally, the Russian side will do everything that must be done in these tragic circumstances, including compensation payments and a legal assessment of the actions of all officials involved," he said.

Aliyev thanked Putin for personally overseeing the situation and said there is "no doubt that it (the investigation) would examine everything objectively."

An Embraer 190 aircraft operated by Azerbaijan Airlines, Flight J2-8243 from Azerbaijan's capital Baku to Russia's Grozny city, crashed near the Kazakh city of Aktau on December 25, 2024, with 67 people on board. Thirty-eight people were killed in the crash.

/IANS