MOSCOW — A Russian fighter jet was shot down in a rebel-controlled area of Idlib Province in northern Syria on Saturday, Russia’s Defense Ministry said, adding that the pilot survived the initial attack by parachuting from the plane but was killed by members of a militia on the ground.

The downing of the jet occurred in one of the country’s so-called de-escalation zones established last year by Russia, Iran and Turkey, in an attempt to lessen the bloodshed in Syria’s long civil war.

The Russian Su-25 warplane was patrolling the Idlib area when it was struck by a missile, launched from an area controlled by rebels, the ministry said in a statement. The pilot has yet to be identified.

The rebel-held area where the plane was shot down, in the northwest of Idlib Province, is controlled by several different rebel factions, including the Free Syria Army, Islamist groups and Tahrir al-Sham, an Al Qaeda-affiliated alliance.