Israel’s flagship air carrier El Al says it has decided to extend the suspension of its flights from Tel Aviv to Moscow until the end of March, reports The Times of Israel.

The move comes after El Al halted air traffic to and from Moscow last week citing “developments in Russia’s airspace” after Azerbaijani officials said a passenger jet that crashed in Kazakhstan on Wednesday had been downed by Russian air defenses.

“After conducting a comprehensive situation assessment, El Al suspends all of its operations on the Tel Aviv-Moscow route until the end of the winter schedule,” El Al said in a statement.

Earlier, the president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, made a series of statements regarding the crash of the Azerbaijan Airlines plane on December 25, openly accusing Russia of "being silent" about the real cause of this plane crash and demanding compensation from Moscow.