India, Oct. 9 -- Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged for the first time on Thursday that Russia played a role in the 2024 crash of an Azerbaijani passenger plane. He called the plane crash a "tragedy", ten months after the plane crash killed 38 people.

Putin made the statement at a meeting with Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliev in Tajikistan's capital of Dushanbe, where both leaders are attending a summit of Soviet Nations.

Speaking with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Putin said that Russian missiles had been deployed to intercept Ukrainian drones that day and the drones detonated few "meters away" from the aircraft.

Aliyev, however, criticized Moscow for attempting to "hush up" the incident.

Putin also said that Russi...