A Russian strategic bomber TU-95, capable of carrying missiles, crashed on Tuesday in the Amur region. Six crew members died, and one is hospitalized.
Officially, the Ministry of Defense in Moscow announced that the aircraft would have fallen during a training flight and would not have had ammunition on board. Kommersant writes that the aircraft had taken off from a military airfield, and the cause of the disaster would be a technical defect.
The Telegram channel “Baza” reports that the plane may have crashed due to an explosion on board, and the engines caught fire.
According to Mash, the fuel tanks exploded after the accident, and the aircraft caught fire. Russian authorities have opened a criminal case following the aviation disaster, reports The Moscow Times.
It is estimated that Russia could have lost, since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, about 14 Tu-95 bombers. These aircraft have nuclear capabilities and have not been produced since 1992. Several aircraft were previously damaged or destroyed by Ukrainian military and security services.
The Tu-95, along with the more modern Tu-160, are the only Russian aircraft capable of launching Kh-101 missiles and are part of Russia’s nuclear triad. Experts assert that reducing the Tu-95 fleet could limit the Russian Armed Forces’ ability to simultaneously carry out long-range attacks against Ukraine and to maintain bombers as a strategic resource in the event of a potential confrontation with NATO.
In the year 2025, Russian military operated with 58 TU-95 type aircraft.