A Russian military plane crashed on Thursday into waters off the coast of annexed Crimea, the Moscow-installed governor of Sevastopol said.
“A military plane has fallen into the sea,” Mikhail Razvozhayev said in a post on the messaging app Telegram without giving the cause.
An unverified video on social media showed a plane in flames falling out of the sky, while other videos appeared to show the pilot drifting down in a parachute after ejecting.
“The pilot ejected. He was picked up by rescuers from the Sevastopol Rescue Service at a distance of 200 meters from the shore. His life is not in danger,” Razvozhayev added.
Sevastopol, the historic headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, lies on the southern coast of Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014.
The peninsula has come under regular Ukrainian attacks since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.