13 people were killed Monday as an inferno consumed the apartments and a Russian fighter jet collided with a residential building in the southern city of Yeysk shortly after takeoff.
According to Reuters, the incident that occurred in Yeysk, a city in southern Ukraine that is cut off from occupied Russian territory by a short section of the Sea of Azov, also left 19 other persons with injuries of varying degrees.
A footage of the Sukhoi Su-34 supersonic medium-range fighter bomber as it descended toward the apartments was released by the military news station Zvezda.
After the incident, footage from the scene showed significant portions of the nine-story structure on fire, but local authorities later claimed the blaze had been put out.
In some reports, the plane was loaded with ammunition but Krasnodar regional governor Veniamin Kondratyev denied such reports.
“If that had been the case, then only half the building would be here,” Russia Information Agency (RIA) cited him as telling reporters.
The crash has led to the evacuation of around 250 people including 40 children, as RIA said the air accident took place during a training flight from a military airfield.
It quoted the defence ministry as saying the pilots reported an engine had caught fire on takeoff, and the plane’s fuel had then ignited when it struck the building.