Azerbaijan says the plane had multiple holes in its fuselage and that the occupants had sustained injuries ‘due to foreign particles penetrating the cabin mid-flight’

Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted on Saturday that Russia’s air defense systems were active when Azerbaijan Airlines flight J2-8243 attempted to land in Grozny, Chechnya on Wednesday.

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.