Russian Fighter Jet Crashes in Crimea

A Russian fighter jet crashed off the coast of Crimea on Thursday, Russian and Ukrainian officials said.

Mikhail Razvozhayev, governor of the port city of Sevastopol, confirmed the crash in a Telegram post. He said that the pilot of the aircraft was ejected from the plane and that no civilian objects were damaged in the crash. Details about the crash remained unclear, and its cause is not known.

“He was picked up by rescuers from the Sevastopol Rescue Service at a distance of two hundred meters from the shore. His life is not in danger,” Razvozhayev wrote.

The crash comes as the war between Russia and Ukraine has spilled over into the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014. On March 23, Ukraine struck two large Russian landing ships in Crimea.

Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the Ukraine “special military operation” in February 2022, aiming for a quick victory over the Eastern European nation. But Ukraine’s stronger than expected defense effort blocked Russian forces from making substantial progress while also raising Ukrainian hopes that the conflict could see Kyiv restore control over Crimea. Still, Ukraine’s military is facing concerns that Western military aid, crucial to bolstering the country’s defense efforts, could end.

Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty reported that the plane that crashed Thursday was a Su-35 fighter jet. Anton Gerashchenko, a former adviser to Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs, wrote in a post to X (formerly Twitter) that Russian military blogs said the plane “could have been shot down by Russian air defense,” but these reports remain unconfirmed by authorities.

Newsweek reached out to the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministries for comment via email.

Last weekend, Ukraine launched a strike against Sevastopol, with the Ukrainian military saying it struck two large landing ships that are part of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, the Yamal and the Azov. Razvozhayev said that air defenses around the city shot down at least 10 Ukrainian missiles and that one person died after a rocket fragment struck a house.

Captain Dmytro Pletenchuk, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s navy, said on Ukrainian TV the strikes have caused communication problems on the Crimean Peninsula in addition to creating new challenges for supply, maintenance and repairs at the naval base.

Ukrainian newspaper the Kyiv Post reported on Thursday that Russia has built up troops in Crimea in recent weeks amid concerns about the region. Satellite images from last October showed that the Black Sea Fleet was fleeing from Sevastopol to the Black Sea port city of Novorossiysk as Ukraine targeted Moscow’s vessels.