Three Dead In Russia After Military Plane Hits Building

At least three persons have been reported dead in Russia after one of the country’s military planes, a Su-34 fighter-bomber, crashed into a residential building in Yeysk, near the Ukraine border, says the defence ministry

According to the Russian military, the plane crashed near an apartment building in Yeysk, a port and resort town in Russia located just south of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol across the Sea of Azov, after experiencing engine failure on takeoff.

Reports said the crash ignited a huge fire, killing at least four people, leaving six missing and injuring 21 others, eight of whom were in grave condition. However, one of the pilots was seen mid-air descending on a parachute in a photograph that has gone viral on the internet.

Video and photographs uploaded to social media on Monday showed that at least five storeys of the residential flats were engulfed in flames, even as the Russian defence ministry said in a statement that the cause of the crash was an engine fire that prevented the jet, which can be used on bombing runs or to engage other aircraft, from gaining altitude.

The plane, said to be on a training flight, was carrying a payload that detonated after impact, preventing firefighters from reaching the fire for some time. Both pilots managed to eject from the jet before it struck the building, the ministry said.

A photograph showed at least one of the pilots ejected from the plane before impact, catapulting into the sky and deploying an orange parachute as a massive fireball exploded into the sky behind him.

“It fell right over us. Everything is in black smoke,” a witness said in a video shared by the channel. “Mom, do you understand? Ten metres and that could have been us.”

Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said three people had died and 19 were injured, the state-run TASS news agency reported. The ministry of emergency situations had earlier given a toll of six dead. The reason for the discrepancy was not immediately clear.

The crash came on the same day as Russia launched a sustained air attack against Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities in an attempt to disable their energy grids and leave millions of civilians without heating or electricity.

People jump over a fence after a drone strike in Kyiv as more drones fly overhead. An explosion, a burst of flames, then screams as kamikaze drones rain down on Kyiv. The Russians had launched dozens of Iranian-made suicide drones at the Ukrainian cities, in the first known use of the loitering munitions against the Ukrainian capital.

The plane in Yeysk is the 10th Russian military jet to have crashed since Russia launched its invasion in February, according to the Bell, a Russian media outlet. The majority have been strike aircraft and transport planes, including two Su-34s in the last month.

The crash also highlights the strain of the eight-month-old war on the Russian military machine. It occurred just days after several soldiers opened fire at a training camp in the Belgorod region, killing more than a dozen and raising more questions about the quality of the recruits that Russia is rushing to the front to hold back a successful Ukrainian counterattack. – With The Guardian Reports