29 Killed in Russian military plane crash in Crimea.

By IVAN NECHEPURENKO

A Russian military transport plane crashed in Crimea, killing all 29 people on board, Russian investigators said Wednesday. The cause was most likely a technical malfunction, they said.

The plane, an Antonov An-26, a Soviet-designed aircraft used by the Russian army to carry cargo and personnel, went down Tuesday near a village in the southern part of Crimea, about 15 miles from the Black Sea coast, the Russian investigators said in a statement. Twenty-two passengers and seven crew members were on board, they said.

Russia annexed Crimea, a strategically located peninsula that has been the object of geopolitical wrangling for centuries, from Ukraine in 2014 after holding a secession referendum that was declared illegal and invalid by major international bodies.

The plane that crashed Tuesday was flying an unspecified mission before communication with it was lost, the state news agency Tass reported, citing the Russian Defense Ministry. Tass said the plane had crashed into a cliff and that there were no signs of external damage to the aircraft, implying that it had not been hit by drones or missiles.

The investigators said they had opened a criminal case into “violation of flight rules or preflight preparation.”

Ukrainian forces regularly target Russian military facilities in Crimea. Ukrainian authorities have not commented on the plane crash.