The Azerbaijan Airlines passenger plane that crashed in Kazakhstan was hit by a Russian "Pantsir-C1" system. This is what Ukrainian military-political analyst Oleksandr Kovalenko claims.
He also published footage from the plane's cabin before the crash, indicating that the plane was hit in Russian airspace.
Azerbaijan Airlines flight J28243 was flying the Baku - Baku route Terrible, but for some reason it was redirected to land in Kazakhstan, where it crashed near the coast of the Caspian Sea (the city of Aktau).
„Apparently, it was the Pantsir-S1 anti-aircraft missile system, and the Russian side, realizing that it had hit a passenger plane, made the most blasphemous decision - to redirect the plane not to one of its airports, but to Kazakhstan,“ writes Kovalenko.
„Why was this decision made? "In the hope that the plane will not reach Aktau and will fall apart, thus hiding as much as possible the traces of another Russian war crime," he added.
Kovalenko said that now the Russians are trying to integrate into the information space the narrative that a Ukrainian attack drone crashed into the plane in order to shift the blame entirely to Ukraine. But the damage, filmed more than once, speaks specifically of a missile, and not a drone, a collision with which would immediately end in a disaster for the plane.
„I wonder in what direction the investigation will now be conducted and how impartially, given the current level of relations between Azerbaijan and Russia. Indeed, in this situation Baku will not want to anger Russia, but swallowing this tragedy will be humiliating, which will immediately affect Azerbaijan's regional positions,“ Kovalenko also said.
A state commission was created by order of the President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in connection with the crash of the Embraer aircraft near Aktau. Miraculously, dozens of passengers survived the plane crash. The number of fatalities is close. Initially, it was reported that the plane hit a flock of birds. However, published footage of the plane's fuselage after the crash raises doubts that it may have been hit by a weapon.