A Malaysia Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Thursday crashed in eastern Ukraine, leaving 295 persons dead, Russian news agency Interfax reported.

Malaysia Airlines confirmed that it lost contact with Flight 17 and that the plane’s last known position was over Ukrainian airspace, the airline said on Twitter.

However, a Ukrainian Interior Ministry official has alleged that the aircraft was “shot down” over Ukraine by “terrorists”, operating a Buk surface-to-air missile system.

According to the Facebook page of Anton Gerashchenko, adviser to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, 280 passengers were killed as well as 15 crew members.

“We do not exclude that the plane was shot down and confirm that the Ukraine Armed Forces did not fire at any targets in the sky,” Ukrainian President, Petro Poroshenko said, according to his website.

News of the Malaysian plane comes in the same week that Ukrainian officials said that a Russian fighter shot down a Ukrainian military transport plane while the aircraft was in in Ukrainian airspace.

[Photo Credit: Reuters]