The Russian Defense Ministry ordered Azerbaijan to shoot down the plane: Azerbaijani media published an explanatory note from the air defense commander.
Azerbaijani media published an anonymous letter containing an explanatory note from an air defense captain from Grozny (Chechnya). The document claims that Russian military opened fire on the AZAL Embraer E190 passenger plane following an order received by telephone.
Minval.az reports this.
The publication claims that the letter they received contains an explanatory note from a Russian air defense captain, who claims that fire was opened on the Azerbaijani plane on orders from the Russian Defense Ministry, as well as video, audio recordings, and details about the poor condition of the equipment.
“The cellular connection at the position was unstable, I had no other stable means of communication. There were fiber optic cables laid, but they were not connected to the terminal, and there was no digital telephone with a dial field. I was given the command to destroy the target by phone. The target was not visible in the optics due to very thick fog, which was attached. At 08:13:30, I gave the command to the operator to destroy,” says the explanatory note of Dmitry Paladichuk, captain of the air defense near Grozny.
The audio recording allegedly captures the moment the command “Fire!” is given. Three lines are heard on the recording: two orders and the confirmation “There is fire.”
The authenticity of this data was confirmed by the Russian editorial office of ASTRA. The publication called Paladichuk himself. He refused to give official comments, but did not deny authorship of the explanatory note.
“I know what is happening now between Russia and Azerbaijan… You see, there is a war going on, I am generally far from politics,” Vinyu said.
Another Russian media outlet, The Insider, also confirmed the authenticity of the document. In a conversation with the publication, Paladichuk admitted that he had indeed written an explanatory note to the “army commander” “after the shooting by the Azerbaijani plane,” because “they demanded it.” He also confirmed that the handwritten document was written by his hand, including pointing out the characteristic features of his handwriting, such as the spelling of the letter “ё.”
Let us recall that on December 25, 2024, near Aktau in Kazakhstan, the passenger plane Embraer 190AR flight 8432 of Azerbaijan Airlines, en route from Baku to Grozny, crashed . 38 people died, another 29 survived. The holes on the body of the plane are characteristic of damage by air defense systems.
In turn, President Zelensky declared Russia's responsibility for the downed plane from Azerbaijan .
The Center for Countering Disinformation stated that the plane over Grozny was hit by a Russian air defense system , but the Russian Federation will try to hide everything.
