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.

The Azerbaijani carrier Azerbaijan Airlines announced that the cause of the plane crash in Aktau, Kazakhstan, was "external physical and technical interference." Earlier, there were accusations against the Russians of using anti-aircraft defenses in connection with Ukrainian drone attacks.

Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev asserted on Sunday that the recent crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines aircraft was the result of an unintentional missile strike by Russian forces. Aliyev criticized