Kazakh Deputy Prime Minister Qanat Bozymbaev said he could neither confirm nor deny the thesis that Russian air defences downed the plane.
Asked about the possibility that Russian air defences shot at the plane, the Kazakh transport prosecutor for the region where the plan came down said the investigation had not come to a firm conclusion yet.
The Kremlin, asked before the Reuters report about the idea that the aircraft had been shot at by Russian air defences, said that an investigation was ongoing and that it would be improper to comment until the inquiry came to its own conclusions.
“It is wrong to build hypotheses before the conclusions of the investigation,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Wreckage
Footage shot by passengers on the plane before it crashed down showed oxygen masks down and people wearing life vests. Later footage, showed bloodied and bruised passengers climbing out of the plane. There were 29 survivors.
Pictures of the plane wreckage showed what appeared to be some sort of shrapnel damage to the tail section of the plane.
Aviation security firm Osprey Flight Solutions said in an alert to airlines on Wednesday that footage of the wreckage and the circumstances around the airspace in southwest Russia indicated the possibility that the airliner was hit by some form of anti-aircraft fire.
Ukrainian military drones have repeatedly targeted Russia’s southern regions in recent months, triggering Russian air defences. Russia and Ukraine have been at war since Moscow’s invasion of its neighbour in February 2022.
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Earlier on Wednesday, the Russian Defence Ministry had reported the downing of 59 Ukrainian drones over several regions.
Some were reportedly shot down in closed airspace over regions bordering Ukraine, including the Sea of Azov. Flight operations were reportedly temporarily suspended at Russia’s Kazan Airport due to the activity.
In addition, publicly available ADS-B flight tracking data shows that the Azerbaijani aircraft experienced GPS jamming throughout its flight over southwest Russia, the alert said.
Russia uses advanced electronic jamming equipment to confuse Ukrainian drone location and communication systems and a large number of air defence systems have been deployed to shoot down the drones.
The US National Security Council referred queries to Azerbaijani and Kazakhstani officials as the investigation continues.
Reuters
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