A plane which crashed killing 38 people on Christmas Day was shot at from the ground by Russia, the president of Azerbaijan said. Ilham Aliyev said today that he regretted that ‘some circles’ in Russia had tried to hush up the truth by sowing false narratives about what caused the Azerbaijan Airlines plane to crash.

Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev has called on Russia to accept blame for a plane crash on Christmas Day that killed 38 people. The plane is thought to have come under fire from Russian air defence systems as it tried to land in Chechnya before being diverted to Kazakhstan,

Azerbaijani President said Sunday that the plane that crashed in Kazakhstan on Wednesday "was damaged from outside on Russian territory."