Azerbaijan Airlines jet believed to have been shot down by Russian missile

An Azerbaijan Airlines flight that crashed in Kazakhstan was shot down by a Russian air defence system, according to several sources in Azerbaijan, after apparently being mistaken for a Ukrainian drone.

The Embraer EMBR3.SA passenger jet crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan, killing 38 of the 67 people on board.

It had been diverted away from an area in which Moscow had deployed air defence systems against Ukrainian drone strikes in recent months.

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Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev called the crash a "great tragedy that has become a tremendous sorrow for the Azerbaijani people".

Azerbaijan held a national day of mourning for the victims.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "It would be wrong to put forward any hypotheses before the investigation's conclusions.

"We, of course, will not do this, and no one should do this. We need to wait until the investigation is completed."

According to Russian sources, Russian air defence forces had been trying to shoot down Ukrainian drones at the time of the Azeri plane's flight over Chechnya.

Ukraine accused Russia of launching a missile strike on Christmas Day, with the aim of damaging energy infrastructure sites across the country.

More than 70 missiles, including ballistic missiles, and more than 100 drones were used in the attack, according to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer condemned the "ongoing assault on Ukraine's energy infrastructure".

He added: "I pay tribute to the resilience of the Ukrainian people and the leadership of President Zelensky in the face of further drone and missile attacks from [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's bloody and brutal war machine, with no respite, even at Christmas."

This is the second year that Ukraine has officially celebrated Christmas on 25 December in a move to distance itself from the Russian Orthodox Church.

Russian Christians celebrate Christmas on 7 January, following the ancient Julian calendar.