The Russian Defense Ministry said on the day of the crash that six crew members were killed and one injured serviceman was taken to hospital. The outlet Port Amur later reported, citing a source, that nine servicemen had been on board and that two of them were not found immediately.
The list of those on board emerged from death notices posted in the VK group Selksiye Novosti (Rural News) of the village of Seryshevo, where the Ukrainka strategic aviation base is located. OSINT analyst duke garland drew attention to the post. Mediazona checked the data and established that all eight officers served in strategic aviation.
Six of the dead were members of the main crew: aircraft commander and Tu-95 squadron commander Major Andrei Lobanov, 40; co-pilot Senior Lieutenant Vladislav Moskovskikh, 31; navigator Captain Artur Yenokyan, 30; navigator-operator Lieutenant Mikhail Kotyshev, 23; flight engineer Captain Sergei Moisevich, 47; and radio operator Major Vladimir Kelip, 55.
The other two were Lieutenant Colonel Fyodor Pavlyukov, 43, deputy commander of the regiment for flight training, and Lieutenant Colonel Andrei Gerasimov, 36, commander of a Tu-95 squadron. The OSINT analyst suggested that their portraits in an obituary photograph were arranged in the order in which Tu-95MS crew members are listed, meaning the two were probably passengers or inspectors.
Three of the dead had appeared in the Ukrainian Russian Torturers database, the "Book of Executioners of the Ukrainian People," before the crash, The Insider writes. Major Lobanov was listed there as deputy commander of a Tu-95MS squadron of the 182nd Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment at the Ukrainka airfield; the database claims he personally took part in combat sorties. Lieutenant Colonel Pavlyukov is listed as deputy commander of the same regiment for flight training; according to the database, from August 2021 to April 2024 he commanded a Tu-95MS squadron and was responsible for training flight personnel.
Major Gerasimov is listed in the database as commander of a Tu-95MS squadron of the 121st Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment. The Book of Executioners project was created in 2022 at the initiative of President Volodymyr Zelensky; its authors say the information is verified by Ukrainian law enforcement or intelligence agencies. Mikhail Piven, head of the Mazanovsky district, said local authorities intend to ask long-range aviation command to nominate the crew for state awards.
The Tu-95MS crashed on September 29 during a training flight near the village of Krasnoyarovo in the Mazanovsky district. The Defense Ministry said the aircraft was flying without ammunition and came down in a deserted area, and Amur region authorities added that the crew "did everything possible to steer the plane away from residential buildings." According to Kommersant, investigators named a technical malfunction as the preliminary cause of the crash. There are no publicly confirmed conclusions on the cause so far.
Most of the dead had served in Engels in the Saratov region before being transferred to the Ukrainka air base. After the SBU's "Spiderweb" operation, Ukrainka became one of Russia's main long-range aviation bases, The Insider writes: a standard Tu-95MS combat sortie from there, with intermediate landings in Engels or Olenya, missile launches and a return to the Far East, can exceed 12,000 km and take about 23 hours.