That might be a little over dramatic. It was a plane crash, the rest isn't terribly relevant.
The first Tu-22М3 prototype performed its maiden flight on June 20, 1977. Since 1978, the aircraft was put into mass production. Tu-22М3 in its final configuration entered service in March 1989. In total, about 500 Tu-22M aircraft of various modifications were built at the Kazan Aircraft Production Association.
it was an OLD airplane that crashed.
No money for Maintenace, or that funding was diverted, and you wind up with a hole in the ground.
“No clear explanation was given for the fiery crash, but Russian state media kept to the line of a “technical malfunction”.
I’m surprised we didn’t hear about a super secret Ukrainian SAM site on the Kamchatka peninsula.