The ministry statement said the plane had taken off from Sharm el-Sheikh airport in the Sinai, which has become a very popular tourist destination for Russians, and disappeared only 23 minutes after its takeoff from radars.
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Russian authorities said the plane was carrying 217 passengers, 17 of them children aged between 2 and 17, and seven crew.
Russia’s Investigative Committee said it was checking fuel samples from the aircraft’s last refueling stop, in the southern Russian city of Samara, according to RIA news agency.
An official from Cyprus Civil Aviation said that Cairo air traffic control has notified authorities in Cyprus that they had lost contact with a Russian aircraft.
The bodies of at least five children have been found within the wreckage of the Russian passenger plane which crashed in Sinai with at least 224 people on board.
President Vladimir Putin has ordered an official investigation and announced that a day of mourning will be held on Sunday. These missiles, however, are only effective against low-flying aircraft or helicopters.
It was operated by Kogalymavia, an airline carrying out charter flights for tourism operators, and operating under the brand Metrojet.
Egypt’s state-run Middle East News Agency said Prime Minister Sherif Ismail had canceled a visit to the city of Ismailiya and formed an operations room to follow up on the situation.
Later, the same official, Ayman al-Muqadem, said the plane had crashed and that the pilot, before losing contact, had radioed that the aircraft was experiencing technical problems and that he meant to try and land at the nearest airport.
In January 2014, Sinai-based militants claimed to have shot down a military helicopter; Egyptian officials at the time acknowledged the helicopter had crashed, but gave no reason.
Russia’s Investigative Committee said it had launched a criminal probe into any possible violation of air safety rules, a standard procedure when air crashes involving Russian planes occur.
Egypt’s civilian aviation ministry said the plane had been at an altitude of 9,500m (31,000ft) when it disappeared.
The Russian aviation authority Rosaviatsiya confirmed in a statement that flight KGL-9268 left Sharm el-Sheikh at 6:51am Moscow time (3:51am GMT) and was travelling to St Petersburg’s Pulkovo airport.
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The security officer at the scene told Reuters by telephone that search and rescue teams heard voices in a section of the plane.
