Russian Tu-22M3 Nuclear Bomber Crashes After Launching Missiles At Ukraine

This is the first Russian strategic aviation aircraft shot down in the air since the start of the war.

A Tu-22M3 strategic bomber-missile carrier crashed in Russia's Stavropol region in the morning of April 19. It actually happened after a Russian missile attack on Ukraine. The plane is believed to have been hit by the Defence Forces, obozrevatel.com reports.

The plane crash was reported by local public pages, which published a photo. Russian authorities claim that the pilots survived, there are allegedly no casualties and victims either.

"Two pilots from the plane that went down in Stavropol have been found, they are alive," Governor Vladimir Vladimirov said.

According to monitoring channels, it is the Tu-22M3 aircraft of the Russian military space forces that was launching Kh-22 cruise missiles at the southern regions of Ukraine at night. It is not ruled out that it was hit by the Ukrainian military.

"This is the first strategic aviation aircraft struck by Ukraine in the air during the entire time of the full-scale invasion," the monitor Telegram channel wrote.

Subsequently, the network published a video of the moment when the aircraft crashed over Stavropol Krai.

"A TU-22M3 plane of the Russian Air Force crashed in the Stavropol Territory after performing a combat mission while returning to the basing airfield," the Russian Defence Ministry later said.

"The preliminary cause of the crash was a technical malfunction. Three crew members have been evacuated, the search for one pilot continues. There was no ammunition on board the plane, there was no destruction on the ground," the Russian ministry said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the AFU Ground Forces said that the footage showed a downing of the Russian Air Force's Tu-22M3 aircraft, which had been launching missiles at Ukraine overnight.