Vladimir Putin has been dealt a double blow after two of his prized Russian military aircraft crashed with one disaster killing 29 people.
An ageing £3million An-26 transport plane lost contact over the rocky Crimean peninsula before it reportedly smashed into a cliff, leaving 23 fighters and six crew dead.
A second Putin warplane – a £30 million Su-34 fighter-bomber – was lost in a separate incident as it engaged Ukrainian drones, say reports.
The Su-34 had two people inside at the time of the crash over an unknown location with the pilot being killed.
There was no immediate update on the fate of the navigator, according to military sources inside Ukraine.
Earlier in the day, 29 people died in the An-26 smash.
Rescuers reached the crash site after the plane vanished from flight tracking systems and found the wreckage at the foot of a cliff face.
Officials said there were “no signs of a destructive impact on board” pointing to the crash being down to human error or a malfunction on board.
They pointed to a likely “technical malfunction”, but Ukrainian sources claimed it could have been a “friendly fire” downing.
“The search and rescue group found the crash site of the An-26 aircraft.
According to a report from the scene, six crew members and 23 passengers on board were killed,” said a defence ministry official.
Unofficial reports indicated the crash site was in Belbek Valley – close to a key military airport near Sevastopol.
The Belbek airport is frequently targeted by the Ukrainian armed forces.
The An-26 has been in service since the 1960s.
It comes as the battle for air superiority between Russia and Ukraine continues.
Earlier this week, Moscow’s drone interceptors were caught impaling Kyiv’s UAVs mid-air in an unprecedented form of sky combat dubbed “jousting”.
Flying devices armed with sharp metal rods to stab Ukrainian aircraft have been seen in gob-smacking footage downing targets.
One clip appears to show one of the new Russian aircraft hurtling down before attaching to a Ukrainian Darts-type loitering strike drone.
It stabs down on the Ukrainian craft’s topside before burning its battery.
The target then falls towards the ground while in flames.
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