A Russian military plane caught fire and crashed into a lake in the region bordering Finland
- Law enforcement agencies reported the incident, according to Russian government news
- The incident reportedly took place in Murmansk in northwestern Russia
On Wednesday, the TASS news agency said, citing law enforcement agencies, that a Russian military plane crashed in the northern Murmansk region after it caught fire.
She added that according to preliminary data, the plane fell into a lake.
Videos have surfaced online purporting to show the plane moments before it crashed.
They showed what was said to be a MIG-31 fighter flying overhead with flames and smoke billowing behind it, before disappearing out of sight behind a tree line.
Murmansk is a region in the Arctic Circle on Russia’s far northwest Kola Peninsula. It is bordered by Norway and Finland – both NATO members.
Moscow has a large military presence on the peninsula, while Russian military bases there house the largest concentration of nuclear weapons in the world.
This incident is the latest disaster for a Russian plane, after one of Vladimir Putin’s planes mistakenly bombed the Russian city of Belgorod near the Ukrainian border last week in a fatal error.
The incident also comes after Russia and China on Wednesday morning signed a memorandum of understanding on enhancing maritime law enforcement cooperation — in the same area where the plane crashed.
This is a breaking news story. More to track…
