On Thursday, the Moscow-installed governor of the city of Sevastopol announced that a Russian military plane crashed into the sea off Ukraine’s occupied Crimean peninsula.
On Telegram, Mikhail Razvozhayev wrote, “A military plane has fallen into the sea”, without specifying the cause.
Social media footage showed a jet in flames plummeting from the sky.
Sevastopol, the historic headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, is located on the southern tip of Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula acquired by Moscow in 2014.
Throughout the two-year conflict, the region has been repeatedly attacked by Ukrainian forces.
Razvozhayev went on to say, “The pilot ejected. He was picked up by rescuers from the Sevastopol Rescue Service at a distance of 200 metres from the shore. His life is not in danger”.
Other footage appeared to show the pilot drifting downward with a parachute after ejecting.
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