Six crew members died when a Russian Tu‑95 strategic bomber crashed during a training flight in the far east of the country, the Defense Ministry said on Tuesday. The aircraft fell in an uninhabited area of the Amur region, near the village of Krasnoyarovo on the Zeya River close to the Chinese border. One crew member survived the impact and was taken to a hospital with injuries.
The Ministry confirmed the bomber was unarmed at the time of the accident. Military investigators have flown to the crash site to determine the cause of the incident.
The Tu‑95, a four‑engine turboprop nuclear‑capable bomber introduced during the Cold War, has been used by Russia to launch conventional cruise missiles into Ukraine over the past four and a half years. Earlier this year, several Tu‑95s were damaged or destroyed in June 2025 during Ukraine’s covert “Spiderweb” operation, in which truck‑launched drones struck air bases hosting long‑range bombers across Russia.
Russian officials said the operation was planned over 18 months and executed by the SBU security service, with drones smuggled thousands of kilometres into Russian territory to target aircraft. The Defence Ministry also reported that Ukraine attacked airfields in five regions—Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Ryazan and Amur—causing several aircraft to catch fire. Satellite images of the Belaya military air base in Irkutsk show debris and ash from damaged planes.
