A Russian military aircraft crashed in Crimea, resulting in the deaths of all 29 individuals on board, according to Russia’s Defence Ministry, as reported by state media.
The An-26 aircraft’s wreckage was discovered after it lost contact with air traffic control during what was described as a “routine flight,” the ministry informed Russian news agencies Tass and Ria-Novosti. Initial reports suggest technical problems may have led to the plane impacting a cliff face. The ministry stated that the aircraft was carrying six crew members and 23 passengers.
There were no apparent survivors. Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in 2014. The Defence Ministry indicated that there was no external damage to the aircraft, suggesting that the crash was not caused by missiles, drones, or bird strikes.
Communication with the plane was reportedly lost around 6:00 PM local time (3:00 PM GMT) on Tuesday. Tass reported that a search and rescue operation located the wreckage following the loss of contact.
The An-26 is an aircraft dating back to the Soviet era, primarily utilized for military purposes. It is capable of transporting substantial cargo and a limited number of passengers over short to medium distances. The aircraft is manufactured by Antonov, a Ukrainian aerospace company. These planes have been in service since the late 1960s and have been involved in several fatal accidents.
Previous incidents involving the An-26 include a crash in Kharkiv in 2020 that killed 26 people, predominantly cadets. The following year, 28 individuals died in a crash in Russia’s Far East. In 2022, one fatality occurred in a separate crash in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion four years prior, conflict has persisted in Crimea between Ukrainian and Russian forces. Ukrainian strikes have frequently targeted Russian military installations on the peninsula, which shares a border with the partially Russian-occupied Kherson region in southern Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has consistently called for Russia’s withdrawal from Crimea as a prerequisite for any ceasefire. In November, a peace proposal supported by the United States suggested that Kyiv would cede control of Crimea.