Russian military plane crashes in Crimea, killing 29 people on board

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MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian military plane crashed in annexed Crimea, killing 29 people on board, officials said Wednesday.

The An-26 military transport plane went missing Tuesday while flying over the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

Early Wednesday, the Russian Defense Ministry said the plane crashed, killing six crewmembers and 23 passengers. Russia’s Investigative Committee said the plane had a crew of seven and carried 22 passengers. There was no immediate official explanation for the difference between the statements.

The Defense Ministry said in a report carried by Russian news agencies that according to the preliminary information the crash was caused by a technical malfunction.

The Soviet-designed military transport turboprop aircraft crashed into a cliff, according to state news agencies Tass and RIA Novosti.

Accidents involving Russian military planes have been frequent since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine.

In December, an An-22 military transport plane crashed in Russia's Ivanovo region, killing seven crew. In October, a MiG-31 fighter jet crashed in the Lipetsk region, while a Tu-22M3 bomber crashed in the Siberian region of Irkutsk in April 2025.

In October 2022, a Su-34 bomber crashed into a residential area of Yeysk, a Russian city on the Azov sea, sparking a massive fire and killing 15 people.