The statement is the closest officials have come to confirming mounting suspicions that the plane was downed by a Russian air-defense system.

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 hit by missiles fired by a Russian air-defence system as it tried to land in Chechnya.

Azerbaijan Airlines, the carrier of the passenger jet that crashed in Kazakhstan on Christmas Day, said preliminary investigations have found the disaster occurred “as a result of physical and technical external interference,