Azerbaijan confirmed that the cause of the plane crash near Aktau was a Russian missile, according to media reports.

A passenger plane of "Azerbaijan Airlines" crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan after being attacked by Russian air defense.

This was reported by RBK-Ukraine citing Euronews.

According to Azerbaijani government sources, the Russians struck the aircraft with a surface-to-air missile.

Sources from Euronews clarify that the missile was launched at the plane while it was over Grozny, where drone activity had been detected. It exploded near the aircraft, and its fragments hit passengers and crew members.

Additionally, as the journalists' sources indicate, the damaged plane was denied permission to land at Russian airports when the pilots requested an emergency landing. The aircraft was ordered to fly over the Caspian Sea towards Aktau.

Euronews found out that the plane's GPS navigation systems were jammed throughout the flight over the sea.

Air Crash in Kazakhstan

As a reminder, on December 25, a plane of "Azerbaijan Airlines" crashed in Kazakhstan, resulting in the deaths of 38 people. Dozens of other passengers were injured and hospitalized.

Following this, photos were released online showing that the plane's fuselage had been damaged by shrapnel.

In this context, the head of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council's Center for Counteracting Disinformation, Andrey Kovalenko, emphasized that the plane was shot down by a Russian surface-to-air missile system. This occurred because the Russians did not close the airspace over Grozny during the drone attack on the city.