CONFIRMED: Russia shot down the Azeri plane, not a "flock of birds"

Azeri authorities speaking to Euronews today (Thursday) confirmed that the cause of the Azerbaijan Airlines crash in Kazakhstan was a Russian missile exploding near the plane, not a flock of birds or an internal explosion as originally suspected.

According to Russian official sources, Russian anti-aircraft batteries were actively trying to shoot down Ukrainian drones attacking Russian territory and thus also targeted the Azeri plane with a Pantsir-S air defence system.

Azeri government sources further said that Russia did not allow the plane to do an emergency landing at any of Russia's airports despite the shrapnel from the anti-aircraft missile seriously damaging the plane.

According to Kazakh authorities, some 29 people out of 67 total passengers survived the crash, many with injuries and some in critical condition.