The President's Daily Brief
PDB Afternoon Bulletin | December 26th, 2024: Did Russian Air Defense Cause Deadly Azerbaijan Crash? & Pakistan Escalates Attacks On Taliban in Afghanistan
26 Dec 2024
In this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin: First, we’ll look at the deadly crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines flight over Kazakhstan on Wednesday, as evidence mounts that it was likely caused by a Russian air defense system. Then, Pakistan is escalating their fight against the Pakistani Taliban in Afghanistan, unleashing a series of airstrikes that killed at least 46 people late Tuesday night. It’s just the latest incident to raise tensions with the Afghan Taliban government, who vowed retaliation. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Full Episode
It's Thursday, 26th December. Welcome to the PDB Afternoon Bulletin. Alright, it's, to be fair, the Late Afternoon Bulletin. I'm on the road still. It's the Where's Waldo game. Coming to you this week from East Asia. I'm Mike Baker. Your eyes and ears on the world stage. Let's get briefed.
First, we'll look at the deadly crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines flight over Kazakhstan on Wednesday as evidence mounts that it was likely caused by a Russian air defense system. Then, Pakistan is escalating their fight against the Taliban in Afghanistan, unleashing a series of airstrikes that killed at least 46 people late Tuesday night.
Now, it's just the latest incident to raise tensions with the Afghan Taliban government who, not surprisingly, vowed retaliation. But first, our afternoon spotlight. We'll begin with the Christmas Day tragedy out of Kazakhstan, where an Azerbaijan Airlines flight crashed on Wednesday in an incident suspected to be caused by Russian anti-aircraft fire.
The flight was heading from Baku in Azerbaijan to Grozny in Russia, but was diverted for unknown reasons over an area where Moscow's air defenses have been engaged in intense aerial battles with Ukrainian drones in recent weeks.
After turning around and flying east over the Caspian Sea, the plane struggled to stay airborne and ultimately went down over western Kazakhstan, killing at least 38 people. And that's according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. Miraculously, as many as 29 passengers survived the fiery crash landing, which was captured by locals on video.
Suspicions soon fell on Russia, despite initial reports that the crash was caused by a mid-air collision with a flock of birds. Ukrainian national security officials subsequently said that intelligence suggested the flight was likely downed by the Russian military.
Osprey Flight Solutions, an aviation security firm, also conducted an initial assessment of the footage Wednesday evening, which they said implicated Russian military air defense systems due to what appeared to be shrapnel damage on the tail section of the airplane. They said such damage could not have been caused by birds, particularly when considering the altitude that the plane was flying at.
By Thursday morning, four sources with knowledge of the preliminary findings of Azerbaijan's investigation confirmed to Reuters that the plane was indeed shot down by a Russian air defense system. They added that the plane's communications were paralyzed by electronic warfare systems as they attempted to approach Grozny in Chechnya, Russia.
The circumstances surrounding the flight's diversion over the Caspian Sea, which took it hundreds of miles off its planned route, were not immediately clear, but officials in Kyiv suggested it was due to a deliberate decision made by Russian officials. A senior national security official in Ukraine told The Wall Street Journal, quote,
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