Russian fighter jet crashes into residential building in Siberian city

Two pilots were killed when a Russian fighter jet crashed into a residential building in the Siberian city of Irkutsk on Sunday, less than a week after another Russian warplane crashed in a residential area in southern Russia. 

The Su-30 fighter jet was reportedly on a training flight when it struck a two-story building, but five residents who live there weren’t home at the time and no casualties were reported on the ground, according to the Irkutsk region’s governor, Igor Kobze. 

Iruktsk, an industrial city with more than 600,000 people, has an aircraft manufacturing plant that makes Su-30s, a twin-engine, two-seat jet. 

Sunday’s crash was the 11th reported noncombat wreck by a Russian military plane since Putin launched the invasion of Ukraine in February. 

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On Monday, an SU-34 bomber crashed in a residential area in the Sea of Azov port of Yeysk, killing 15 people and injuring another 19. 

The UK Ministry of Defense said earlier this summer that Russia’s air force has “underperformed” during the invasion of Ukraine. 

“While Russia has an impressive roster of relatively modern and capable combat jets, the air force has almost certainly failed to develop the institutional culture and skill-sets required for its personnel to meet Russia’s aspiration of delivering a more Western-style modern air campaign,” the UK defense ministry said in June. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.