Bummer

There has been a lot of work going on around the world to better study the moon's south pole, and the crash of  the Russian Luna 25 probe is a setback for those efforts.

It appears that a propulsion malfunction led to the crash:

Sunday 8:15 am ET update: Russian space officials have confirmed the loss of the Luna 25 spacecraft on the Telegram social media network. The failure occurred during a burn of the vehicle's propulsion system to move the spacecraft into a "pre-landing" orbit on Saturday morning. However, due to an unspecified problem, the propulsion system instead sent the vehicle crashing into the lunar surface.

This is a stunning loss for the Russian space program given that it is the country's first attempt to return to the Moon since a 1976 robotic mission by the Soviet Union. Roscosmos, the Russian space corporation, said that an "interdepartmental commission" will be formed to study the mishap.

Original post: In a terse update posted on the social media network Telegram on Saturday, the Russian space corporation Roscosmos said that an "emergency situation" had occurred on board its Luna 25 spacecraft.

The 1.2-ton lunar lander entered orbit around the Moon three days ago, and since that time Russian engineers have been sending commands for small engine burns to correct the spacecraft's orbit. Roscosmos sent another of these commands on Saturday to put Luna 25 into a "pre-landing orbit" ahead of a landing that had been due to occur as soon as Monday.

However, during the maneuver at 14:10 Moscow time (11:10 UTC) on Saturday, a problem occurred, which did not allow the operation to be carried out successfully. "The management team is currently analyzing the situation," concluded the short statement from Roscosmos.

The Indian Chandrayaan-3 probe is due to set down in the same region shortly.

The lunar south pole interesting because they can supply continuous solar power, and the craters are constantly in shade, which implies the presence of water in them, making them prime real estate for manned facilities.