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Russian Warplane Crashes During Training Flight

Su-34 aircraft. Dmitry Terekhov (CC BY-SA 2.0)

A Russian fighter bomber has crashed during a training flight in southwestern Russia, state media reported Wednesday, citing Russia’s Defense Ministry.

The supersonic Su-34 strike aircraft was not equipped with weapons when it crashed in the Voronezh region, which borders the partially-occupied Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine.

“There’s no destruction on the ground,” the Defense Ministry was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.

The Sukhoi Su-34’s two-man crew ejected and was evacuated to the airfield where the aircraft was based.

Wednesday's incident marks the tenth Russian warplane to crash inside the country this year, according to The Moscow Times’ Russian service.

Russia’s military has seen several deadly air crashes since Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Overall, Russia has lost 20 Su-34s since the start of the war, including three that were destroyed in non-combat related incidents, according to the Dutch open-source intelligence project Oryx.

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