A total of 38 people died when an Azerbaijani aircraft crashed in Kazakhstan, Kazakh Deputy Prime Minister Qanat Aldabergenuly Bozymbaev said on Wednesday.

Russia won't say if it mistakenly downed an Azerbaijani plane on Christmas. But it acknowledges the crash came amid a Ukrainian drone attack in its republic of Chechnya.

Azerbaijan Airlines, the carrier of the passenger jet that crashed in Kazakhstan on Christmas Day, said preliminary investigations have found the disaster occurred “as a result of physical and technical external interference,

Vladimir Putin has apologised for the Azerbaijan Airlines crash but stopped short of accepting responsibility for what he described as a “tragic incident”.

In the crash’s aftermath, Azerbaijan has unleashed rare and stinging criticism of Russia, with the country’s president saying Moscow’s response has caused “surprise, regret and rightful indignation.”

The extraction of flight data from the Brazilian-made Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed in Kazakhstan last month was completed at a lab run by Brazil's air force, according to a statement released by the entity on Monday.

"The blame for this disaster lies with representatives of the Russian Federation," Ilham Aliyev said on Jan. 6.

We demand justice, we demand punishment for those responsible, we demand full transparency - said the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, regarding the plane crash caused by a Russian missile. He also accused Moscow of attempting to cover up the incident.