A medium-range bomber of the Russian Air Force has crashed during a training flight in Siberia, DPA reported, citing a statement from the Russian Defense Ministry, BTA reported.
The crew of the Tu-22M3 aircraft managed to eject successfully, the ministry said. “There is no danger to the lives of the pilots. There was no damage on the ground,“ the statement added.
The bomber, which was not carrying missiles, crashed while attempting to land at an airfield near the village of Kamenka in the Baikal region of Russia's Irkutsk region.
The Tu-22M3 aircraft is part of Russia's strategic aviation and can launch missiles equipped with nuclear warheads. Moscow has used such bombers in the war against Ukraine to launch cruise missiles.
The Russian bomber can also carry hypersonic “Dagger“ missiles and is codenamed “Backfire“ (Backfire) according to NATO's code name, Reuters notes.
Ukraine has tried many times to destroy this type of bomber, and according to Kiev, several of the attempts ended in success.
Although there are no officially published data, some experts believe that Russia still has about 60 medium-range bombers and each loss is considered a significant damage to its strategic aviation, DPA indicates.