Summary A Russian Tu-22M3 bomber crashed in Siberia, with reports indicating one crew member dead and three injured. The crash was attributed to technical malfunction, occurring far from the war zone in Ukraine. Russia's aviation losses include multiple Tu-22M3 bombers and other aircraft, some attributed to Ukraine's actions.
Russia lost another of its Tu-22M3 strategic bombers against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine . The supersonic sweep-wing bomber was filmed by locals falling out of the sky in a fireball and exploding upon impact just 100 meters from Highway R-255. Videos uploaded onto social media in the morning revealed the jet as a debris field strewn across the area.
Russia is now confirmed to have lost at least five strategic bombers since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russian Tu-22M3 strategic bomber crashes in Siberia Early reporting suggests all of the crew managed to eject. However, one of the bomber's four crew died, while the other three survived and were in hospitals in varying states.
At the beginning of 2024, IISS estimated in its 2024 Military Balance that the Russian Air Force had 57 of them left in service, while the Ukrainian Main Directorate of Intelligence estimated Russia had 27 Backfires in operable condition. According to Russian authorities , the cause of the crash was a technical malfunction. The incident happened in the Cheremkhiv district of the Irkutsk region of Siberia.
This is thousands of miles away from the frontli.