Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev wants to hold Russia accountable for the recent crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines plane. The incident in Kazakhstan last Wednesday left 38 people dead.

Aliyev spoke about the disaster during an interview with the country's state-run television station on Sunday.

He said the facts indicate that the Azerbaijani civilian plane was damaged from the outside over Russian territory and almost lost control.

Aliyev added that the tail of the plane was also severely damaged, as a result of fire from the ground.

The president also said, "We can clearly say today that the plane was shot down by Russia. We are not saying that this was done intentionally, but it was done."

Aliyev criticized Moscow. He said, "For the first three days, we heard nothing from Russia except for some absurd theories."

He added, "Attributing this to a flock of birds or to the explosion of a gas cylinder is both foolish and dishonest."

He urged Russia to admit its guilt.

The president said the people responsible must be punished. He added that the Azerbaijani state, the injured passengers and the crewmembers must be compensated.

The Azerbaijan Airlines passenger plane was carrying 67 people when it went down near Aktau.

The city is located in western Kazakhstan. The aircraft had departed from Azerbaijan's capital, Baku. It was headed for Grozny in southern Russia.

On Saturday, Russia's president apologized to Aliyev for what he described as a "tragic incident" in Russian airspace involving a passenger plane.

Vladimir Putin explained that the area was being attacked by Ukrainian drones at the time. He said Russian air defense systems were repelling the attacks.