A military plane crash in a residential area of the southwestern Russian town of Yeysk, near Ukraine, left at least two dead and 15 hospitalised, Russian state-run news agencies reported.

A Russian Su-34 supersonic fighter-bomber jet crashed into a residential building in the city of Yeysk on Monday, citing the Russian state media TASS, CNN reported. The crash was due to the ignition of one of the engines, Russian state media RIA Novosti reported citing the country’s defence ministry.

It is not clear how many people were in the fighter jet.

“On October 17, 2022, a Su-34 aircraft crashed while climbing to perform a training flight from the military airfield of the Southern Military District,” the ministry said in a statement to RIA. “According to the report of the ejected pilots, the cause of the plane crash was the ignition of one of the engines during take-off. At the site of the crash of the Su-34 in the courtyard of one of the residential quarters, the plane’s fuel ignited.”

The area of the fire that started after the crash is 2,000 square meters, the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations told RIA.

The information about casualties in the area is being established, according to the ministry.

Veniamin Kondratyev, the governor of the Krasnodar Krai region, is on his way to the city, he said in a statement on his Telegram channel.

“Emergency services are already working on the spot — all regional fire and rescue garrisons are engaged in extinguishing the fire,” he added.

The state media reported that another resident of the city specified that this residential building has nine floors. The entire house is on fire, according to the eyewitnesses, as quoted by TASS.

Yeysk is located across the water from the Russian-occupied city of Mariupol.
Earlier, at least four people were killed after Russia attacked the capital of Kyiv with Iranian-made “kamikaze” drones on Monday, according to Ukrainian officials, who repeated their calls for Western allies to supply Ukraine with more advanced air defence systems.

Drones have played a significant role in the conflict since Russia launched its full-scale invasion, but their use has increased after Moscow acquired new drones from Iran over the summer. Iran on Monday once again denied supplying weapons to Russia in its war on Ukraine.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief said the bloc “will look for concrete evidence” on Iran’s involvement in Moscow’s military assault on Ukraine, and the Ukrainian foreign minister has called for sanctions against Iran.