Russian pilot is killed after Su-25 fighter jet crashes in region bordering Ukraine

A Russian jet has crashed in the Belgorod region of Western Russia mere miles from the Ukrainian border, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.

‘A plane of the Ministry of Defence crashed in the Valuysky urban district. Now an investigation team and officials of the Ministry of Emergency Situations are working on the spot,’ he wrote on Telegram early this morning.

The pilot, who had just returned from a combat sortie over Ukrainian skies, ejected from the Sukhoi Su-25 jet but Russia’s MoD later said the pilot did not survive.

It was not immediately clear whether the jet had been hit by a strike from Ukraine, but Russia’s MoD claimed the crash was due to a ‘technical malfunction’, a routine explanation when its warplanes are downed. 

‘After completing a combat mission, a Su-25 aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces crashed while returning to its base airfield in the Belgorod Region. The pilot died… According to preliminary data, the cause of the disaster was a technical malfunction,’ the ministry said.

The Valuysky district of Belgorod sits along the border of Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, and a live map of the crash suggested the plane careened into the ground close to Orekhovo village just 10 miles from the border.

Soviet-era Su-25 jets have long been a mainstay in Russia’s arsenal and are used to provide close air support to troops on the ground. 

The remains of a Russian jet that crashed in Belgorod region close to the Ukrainian border are pictured 

Russia’s ministry of defence said the jet was returning to base from a combat mission when it malfunctioned and crashed

FILE PIC: Soviet-era Su-25 jets have long been a mainstay in Russia’s arsenal and are used to provide close air support to troops on the ground.

The crash in Belgorod today comes days after a Russian court sentenced two defendants to three-and-a-half years in a strict regime colony for plotting to sabotage a railway in the region that was carrying military equipment and troops to the frontlines.

These are the first convictions for sabotage since Russia’s invasion began, media reported on Tuesday.

‘According to the criminal intent, such actions would have led to derailment, damage to military and railway equipment, casualties among servicemen,’ Russia’s state-run TASS news agency cited an unidentified source at the court in the Belgorod region as saying.

TASS identified the two by their last names but gave no more details about them.

Their convictions were the first based on the ‘Sabotage’ Article 231 of the Russian Criminal Code since the start of what Russia calls its ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine, the news agency said.

Ukraine and its allies say Russia’s military intervention in its neighbour, launched on Feb. 24 last year, is an imperialistic land-grab.

There have been several sabotage incidents against Russian railways and other facilities, especially in regions bordering Ukraine, such as Belgorod and Bryansk, according to the British Ministry of Defence.

The ministry said in an October report that with the Russian military primarily relaying on rail transport, which often passes through isolated areas, meaning ‘the system is extremely challenging to secure against physical threats’.

Separately, Alexander Bastrykin, the head of the Investigative Committee of Russia, the main state investigating agency, told TASS in an interview on Monday that there have been more than 150 criminal cases opened on statements discrediting the Russian army.