MOSCOW: A Russian military plane crashed Thursday into the sea off Ukraine’s annexed Crimean peninsula, the Moscow-installed governor of the city of Sevastopol said.

“A military plane has fallen into the sea,” Mikhail Razvozhayev said in a post on Telegram, without giving the cause.

Footage on social media showed a plane in flames falling out of the sky.

Sevastopol, the historic headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, sits on the southern tip of Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014.

The region has come under frequent Ukrainian attack during the two-year conflict. “The pilot ejected. He was picked up by rescuers from the Sevastopol Rescue Service at a distance of 200 metres from the shore. His life is not in danger,” Razvozhayev added.

Other videos appeared to show the pilot drifting down in a parachute after ejecting.