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.

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev says the Azerbaijani airliner that crashed last week was shot down by Russia, albeit unintentionally.

The leader of Azerbaijan criticized the Russian response to the crash of a passenger jet that Azerbaijani officials said had most likely been hit by Russian air defenses.

"We can clearly say today that the plane was shot down by Russia," President Ilham Aliyev said in a televised statement

By Guy Faulconbridge, Andrew Osborn and Nailia Bagirova MOSCOW/BAKU (Reuters) -President Vladimir Putin on Saturday apologised to Azerbaijan's leader for what the Kremlin called a "tragic incident" over Russia in which an Azerbaijan Airlines plane crashed after Russian air defences were fired against Ukrainian drones.

The crash of an Azerbaijani airliner in Kazakhstan has killed 38 of 67 people on board. Azerbaijan Airlines’ Embraer 190 was en route from Azerbaijani capital Baku to the Russian city of Grozny in the North Caucasus on Wednesday when it was diverted for reasons that aren’t fully clear yet.

"Unfortunately, in the first three days we heard only absurd versions from Russia," President Ilham Aliyev said, citing statements in Russia that attributed the crash to a bird strike or the explosion of some sort of gas cylinder.

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev added that it was unintentional but criticised Moscow for trying to “hush up” the shooting for days.View on euronews

The probe into the Azerbaijan Airlines crash in Kazakhstan is examining the conduct of air traffic controllers after the aircraft encountered difficulty, a source said.