An Azerbaijan Airlines flight that crashed in Kazakhstan on Christmas was downed by a Russian air defence system, according to several sources in Azerbaijan.
On Wednesday, an Embraer EMBR3.SA passenger jet crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan, killing 38 people, after diverting from an area of Russia in which Moscow has used air defence systems against Ukrainian drone strikes in recent months.
Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev called the crash “a great tragedy that has become a tremendous sorrow for the Azerbaijani people”.
Twenty-nine of the 67 people on board survived. Azerbaijan have held a national day of mourning today for the victims of the crash today.
Russia in response said: “It would be wrong to put forward any hypotheses before the investigation’s conclusions.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov added: “We, of course, will not do this, and no-one should do this. We need to wait until the investigation is completed.”
According to Russian sources, the Russian air defence forces were trying to shoot down Ukrainian drones at the time of the Azeri plane’s flight over Chechnya.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer recently condemned recent strikes against Ukraine’s energy grid.
He said that Russia’s “bloody and brutal war machine” has shown no respite “even at Christmas”.
Ukraine has accused Russia of launching a missile on Christmas Day, with the aim of damaging energy infrastructure sites across the country.
More than 70 missiles, including ballistic missiles and over 100 drones, were used in the attack, according to Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky.
Sir Keir condemned what he called an “ongoing assault on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure”.
He added: “I pay tribute to the resilience of the Ukrainian people, and the leadership of President Zelensky, in the face of further drone and missile attacks from (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s bloody and brutal war machine, with no respite, even at Christmas.”
This is the second year that Ukraine has officially celebrated Christmas on December 25, in a move to distance itself from the Russian Orthodox Church.
Russian Christians celebrate Christmas on 7 January, following the ancient Julian calendar.