In a big development, a Russian nuclear-capable strategic bomber crashed on Tuesday on a training mission in the country’s far east, killing six members of its crew, the Defence Ministry said. The ministry further added in a statement that the Tu-95 bomber went down in an unpopulated area in the Amur region, adding that one crewmember survived the crash and was hospitalised with injuries.
Russia’s Defence Ministry added that six of the seven crew members on board a Tu-95MS strategic bomber were killed when the aircraft crashed shortly after take-off during a training flight in the far eastern Amur region on Tuesday.
Unverified videos circulating on social media purportedly showed the bomber going down, followed by flames and thick smoke at the crash site. Loud blasts and crackling sounds can also be heard in the video.
Defence Ministry says bomber wasn’t carrying weapons
The Defence Ministry said that the bomber wasn’t carrying weapons. A team of investigators has flown to the area to determine the cause of the crash, the ministry said in a statement.
Apart from the defence ministry, the local administration said in a statement that the plane crashed near the village of Krasnoyarovo on the Zeya River near the border with China. It said the pilots “did all they could to steer the plane away from residential buildings.”
Know all about Tu-95 long-range bomber
The Tu-95 is a nuclear-capable four-engine turboprop strategic bomber that has been in service since the Cold War era. The Russian military has widely used the big warplane to launch conventionally-armed cruise missiles at Ukraine throughout the more than 4 1/2-year conflict.
Some of these Tu-95s of the Russian air force were destroyed or damaged during Ukraine’s “Spiderweb” operation in June 2025, when it used drones covertly launched from trucks to hit several air bases hosting long-range bombers across Russia.
Reports suggest that the Tu-95 was stationed at the Ukrainka air base, one of Russia’s largest long-range Air Force bases. The reports also added that the plane crashed near the village of Krasnoyarovo, which is located 30 kilometers (18.5 miles) north of the Ukrainka base.
However, unverified reports from Telegram news with ties to Russian law enforcement and security services suggest that the bomber plane may have crashed as the result of an engine fire and explosion.
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