We demand justice, we demand punishment for those responsible, and we demand full transparency, — said the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, regarding the plane crash caused by a Russian missile.

Azerbaijani authorities believe the Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed in Kazakhstan, killing 38 people, was shot by a Russian anti-aircraft missile, multiple reports said on Thursday. The Turkish state news agency Anadolu cited anonymous senior state officials in Azerbaijan as saying the plane was hit by a missile on Wednesday.

Multiple shrapnel holes in the plane’s fuselage and its altitude at the time of incident contradict the bird theory. Azerbaijan accused Russia of hitting the passenger jet with a missile. The pilot did not decide to fly to Aktau;

Azerbaijani authorities believe the crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines plane in Kazakhstan that killed 38 people was caused by a Russian surface-to-air missile, several media reported Thursday. The jet was en route from the country's capital Baku to the city of Grozny in Chechnya, southern Russia, on Wednesday but crashed near Aktau in Kazakhstan.

Senior Azerbaijani officials confirmed to Anadolu on Thursday that earlier media reports about the crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines flight near

If these preliminary findings are confirmed, the incident would mark the second time in a decade that Russian forces have downed a commercial aircraft, following the 2014 MH17 disaster in Ukraine. The crash also claimed the lives of Russian citizens and nationals from neighbouring countries.

We demand justice, we demand punishment for those responsible, we demand full transparency - said the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, referring to the plane crash caused by a Russian missile. He also accused Moscow of attempting to cover up the incident.

Azerbaijan's president said on Monday that Russia was "guilty" over the downing of an airline last month that Baku says was shot by Russian air defenses. An Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 jet crash-landed in Kazakhstan on Dec.