A passenger jet operated by Azerbaijan Airlines crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, after diverting from an area of southern Russia where Moscow has repeatedly used air defence systems against Ukrainian attack drones.

Tracking websites detected the flight flying north on its scheduled route along the west coast before its flight path was no longer recorded

On 25 December, 38 people died when an Azerbaijan Airlines flight, which had been due to land in Russia, crash-landed in Kazakhstan. The circumstances around the crash remain unclear, but limited evidence so far suggests it may have been damaged by missiles fired by a Russian air-defence system as it tried to land in Chechnya.

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev has accused Russia of accidentally shooting down an airliner on Christmas Day in a disaster that killed 38 people, and covering up the cause.

On Christmas Day in Kazakhstan, a tragedy occurred that claimed the lives of 38 people. An Azerbaijan Airlines plane, flight number 8243, crashed during an emergency landing near the city of Aktau. Despite the quick intervention of rescue services,