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It crashed in Russia’s western Lipetsk region, about 190 miles from Ukraine’s eastern border.
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A Russian MiG-31 fighter jet crashed while attempting to land in the western Lipetsk region near the border with Ukraine, the Russian defence ministry said.
The aircraft reportedly crashed in an uninhabited area in Lipetsk, which is about 300km (190 miles) from Ukraine’s eastern border.
“A MiG-31 aircraft crashed during its landing approach after completing a scheduled training flight,” the Russian defence ministry said on Thursday, according to Russia’s Tass news agency.
“The aircraft’s crew ejected, there is no threat to the pilots’ lives.”
The cause of the crash remains unclear. It occurred shortly before Russia launched a large-scale overnight drone and missile attack against Ukraine on Friday.
A seven-year-old boy was killed when his home was hit in the southeast and at least 20 people were injured, Reuters reported.
Ukrainian officials said much of the capital, Kyiv, experienced power outages as a result of the attack.
Russian forces have focused on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in recent weeks as winter again approaches in the more than three-and-a-half-year-old war. A massive missile and drone attack last week hit several of Ukraine’s main gas production facilities, causing considerable damage.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky condemned Russia’s large-scale attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure as “cynical and calculated”, as he called for urgent international support to protect civilians ahead of winter.
More than 200,000 people were left without power in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region after Russia’s overnight attack on the energy system, local governor Oleh Syniehubov said.
The frontline region is home to Ukraine’s second largest city, and has been regularly bombarded during the war.
Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Svyrydenko said the Russian attack on Friday was “one of the largest concentrated strikes against energy facilities”.
President Volodymyr Zelensky described the attack as a “cynical and calculated” operation, carried out using over 450 drones and more than three dozen missiles.
Around 110,000 consumers were without power on Friday morning in the Kyiv region, governor Mykola Kalashnyk said.
The attack also damaged energy infrastructure in the central region of Poltava, where around 17,000 consumers were without power, according to local officials.
Ukrainian private energy firm DTEK said its thermal power plants had suffered significant damage in the attack but did not immediately provide further details.
Power has returned to the capital Kyiv following an overnight Russian drone and missile attack that left much of the city in darkness, the Ukrainian energy minister said.
“Energy companies have restored power to 270,000 customers in Kyiv,” Svitlana Hrynchuk wrote on Facebook on Friday.
She said it was three years to the day since Russia launched its first large-scale attack on Ukraine’s power grid.
“Today, Russia continues to use cold and darkness as instruments of terror,” she said.
A Russian MiG-31 fighter jet crashed during landing in the western Lipetsk region near the border with Ukraine, the Russian defence ministry said.
“The aircraft crew ejected, and there is no threat to the pilots’ lives,” the ministry said on Thursday, according to Russia’s Tass news agency.
It added that the jet was on a routine training flight without weapons on board.
It came shortly before Russia launched a large-scale overnight drone and missile attack against Ukraine on Friday. Lipetsk is about 300km (190 miles) from Ukraine’s eastern border.
The MiG-31 fighter jet, a twin-seat supersonic aircraft capable of carrying Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, is the fastest known operational combat aircraft. It can travel up to 3,000km per hour (1,860 mph) and climb to altitudes of 21,000 metres (68,900 feet).
Maria Corina Machado has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her work in “promoting peace” in Latin America at a time when “democracy is under threat”.
Ms Machado was declared the winner in an announcement made by the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo on Friday.
The Venezuelan opposition leader was awarded for “for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee said in its citation.
Donald Trump has proposed banning Chinese airlines from flying over Russia on routes to and from the US.
The proposal is another escalation of the trade war between the world’s two largest economies.
US airlines have long criticised the decision to allow Chinese carriers to use Russian airspace. Washington banned flights over the US in March 2022 following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Ukraine’s top general said Ukraine struck Russian territory 70 times last month.
“We are destroying the production of fuels and lubricants, explosives, and other components of the Russian military-industrial complex in the aggressor country,” Oleksandr Syrskyi wrote on Facebook.
“In particular, oil refining in Russia has been reduced by 21%.”
Sweden will invest £275m in more anti-drone systems, its defence minister said on Friday, citing a growing threat posed by aerial violations.
A wave of drone sightings has rattled European aviation, sparking concerns about hybrid attacks potentially targeting Ukraine’s allies in Europe, though Russia has denied involvement.
“Recent violations and drone sightings are a reminder that threats from the air are an increasingly large part of modern warfare,” Defence Minister Pal Jonson said on X. “We must defend ourselves against this.”
The Nordic Nato member will acquire systems to shoot down drones, deploy hunter drones for air bases and install jamming sensors, among other measures, the minister added.
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