Key points
- An anonymous letter from a “Russian air defense captain” claims that the Russian Defense Ministry ordered the shooting down of an Azerbaijan Airlines plane on December 25, 2024, near Grozny.
- Audio recordings of the “open fire” order have been released, but the authenticity of the letter and recordings has not been confirmed.
Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash / Photo AP
One of the Azerbaijani publications stated that it received an anonymous letter from a “Russian air defense captain.” He claims that the AZAL plane was shot down on December 25, 2024 near Grozny on the orders of the Russian Defense Ministry.
A photocopy of the letter and a fragment of an audio recording, in which a male voice can be heard giving the order to “open fire” twice, were published on July 1. This was reported by 24 Kanal , citing Minval Politica.
Did the Russian Defense Ministry Really Order the Shooting Down of the AZAL Plane?
The publication states that the command to shoot down the Azerbaijani airliner was given by a certain “air defense captain” Dmitry Sergeevich Paladichuk. According to the letter received by the editorial office, the officer “was on combat duty to cover the city of Grozny from 12/24/24 to 12/25/24.”
Paladichuk then reports that at 05:40 he “received a command to go to readiness level 1,” and “at 08:11 a potential target was detected by the target detection station.” In addition, he also voiced some details about the poor condition of the equipment.
At 08:13:30, I gave the command to the operator to engage. At 08:13:33, the missile left the guide. At 08:13:47, the BM-72V6 TsVS reported that the target had been missed. At 08:13:48, I gave the command to re-engage, Paladichuk wrote.
Russian Defense Ministry May Have Given Order to Shoot Down Azerbaijani Plane: Video Minval Politika
According to the preliminary report of the commission investigating the crash of the Embraer 190 airliner, the first sonic boom was recorded at 08:13:31, while the second one was recorded at 08:13:56.
It should be noted that the Azerbaijani publication cites a fragment of an audio recording in which a male voice states the coordinates given in the explanatory note, and then repeats the command twice: “Fire! Fire, I say!” Then a loud sound is heard in the recording, and a male voice says: “There is east. Missed. I repeat. Fire again!” to which another voice replies: “There is fire.”
Letter from the so-called “Russian air defense captain” Dmitry Paladichuk / Photo Minval Politika
The audio recordings have been published only partially because law enforcement still has them. The Azerbaijani publication also notes that it does not claim the authenticity of this letter.
According to his photocopy, Paladichuk allegedly serves in military unit 75564, located within Khakassia.
As the Russian publication “Agentstvo” writes, it has not yet been possible to confirm that a person with such data served in unit 75564. However, this is definitely an active Russian officer who previously served in other military units, one of which is associated with air defense.
According to media reports, Paladichuk is 32 years old and was born in the city of Ekibastuz in Kazakhstan. No later than 2010, he began serving in military unit 21059. In 2011 and 2013, Paladichuk's place of service was listed as unit 31665 in Novosibirsk, which belongs to the 14th Air Force and Air Defense Army (its headquarters are located in Novosibirsk). The media was unable to find any more information about Paladichuk's places of service.
It is worth adding that The Insider has obtained a recording of a new telephone conversation with Paladychuk. In it, he confirmed that he really did write an explanatory note “to the army commander after the shooting at the plane” because “they asked him to.”
He also confirmed that the handwritten document was written by his hand, including pointing out the characteristic features of his handwriting. In addition, the publication claims that Paladichuk's voice matches the voice in the video published by Azerbaijani media.
Recall that the plane crash occurred on December 25, 2024. The Embraer E190, heading to Azerbaijan, crashed in the Aktau region of Kazakhstan. 38 people died. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev blamed the Russian side for this.
