On Saturday, Putin said the “tragic incident” had occurred when Russian air defence systems were repelling Ukrainian drones, and expressed his “deep and sincere condolences to the families of the victims”.

The Russian president acknowledged that the plane had repeatedly tried to land at Grozny airport, in Chechnya.

However, at the time the cities of Grozny, Mozdok and Vladikavkaz were “being attacked by Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles, and Russian air defence systems repelled these attacks”, Putin said.

Ukraine’s President Volodymr Zelensky said Russia must “stop spreading disinformation” and that the damage to the aircraft’s fuselage was “very reminiscent of an air defence missile strike”.

The Kremlin read-out made no direct admission that the plane had been struck by Russian missiles.

Aliyev said Baku had demanded Russia “admit its guilt”, punish those at fault, and pay compensation to Azerbaijan and the injured survivors of the crash.

Azerbaijan and Russia are allies. The Azerbaijani president said: “No one would have thought that in a country that is friendly to us, our plane would be fired at from the ground.”

His remarks came as Azerbaijan paid tributes to the pilots and passengers of the downed plane.

Three crew members – Captain Igor Kshnyakin, co-pilot Alezander Kalayaninov and flight attendant Hokuma Aliyeva – were given distinguished honours for landing the plane in a way that allowed 29 people to survive, even though it led to their own deaths.