This is the moment when Vladimir Putin’s $40 million nuclear-capable Tu-22 bomber crashes, a humiliating blow to the despot.
The valuable Russian plane crashed into a fire after taking off in Siberia, causing Vlad embarrassment as Ukraine effectively continues its invasion of Russia.
Witnesses said the Tu-22M3 nuclear bomber, aircraft used under Putin as a key to his nuclear arsenal, slammed into the sky before crashing amid violent explosions.
Dramatic showed the moment when a huge fireball filled the sky as the plane fell.
The four-person team reportedly ejected safely before the high-tech plane fell to the ground and exploded in Irkutsk, Siberia.
The plane crashed near the Cheryomkhovsky district of the Irkutsk region, about 3,300 miles east of Moscow.
No transparent explanation was given for the burning accident, but Russian state media said it was a “technical failure”.
Putin, who had to repel an incursion on the Ukrainian border in Kursk, deployed two Tu-22 jets this week to threaten the West in a nuclear exercise over the Baltic Sea.
Meanwhile, two Tu-95 strategic nuclear missile carriers flew over northern Britain over the Norway Sea, escorted by MiG-31 fighter jets.
The Tu-22 crashed after leaving the Belaya airfield.
Neighbors saw several explosions at the scene of the accident.
One report said, “The team miraculously pulled the falling plane away from the residential buildings and ejected it. “
Nearly a year later, Ukraine launched a stunning kamikaze drone attack on an army airbase in central Russia, destroying Putin’s most popular Tu-22 bombers.
They showed the crippling blow with a huge flare of flames and black smoke that filled the sky over Soltsy.
The Tupolev Tu-22 was first deployed to Russia during its war in Ukraine, the “carpet bombardment” of Mariupol.
They reportedly have 60 of those terrifying planes in service.
It has an operational range of only about 7,000 km, which includes all of Europe and the east coast of the United States in its range.
These Soviet-designed multipurpose aerial bombs, with a high-explosive warhead, are devastating in their indiscriminate damage.
The Tu-22 can also carry Kh-15 nuclear or anti-radar missiles, as well as Kh-22 long-range naval strike missiles.
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