One of many few F-16 fighter jets Ukraine obtained from its Western companions to assist combat off the Russian invasion has crashed, the Ukrainian Military Basic Employees reported on Thursday (August 29). The pilot was killed.
The fighter jet crashed Monday as Russia launched an enormous missile and drone assault on Ukraine, in response to a navy assertion posted on Fb. 4 of these Russian missiles have been shot down by F-16s, the assertion mentioned.
The crash was the primary lack of an F-16 in Ukraine, the place they arrived late final month. Not less than six of the warplanes are believed to have been delivered.
The Ministry of Protection has opened an investigation into the accident.
The Ukrainian Air Power in a Fb put up recognized the pilot as Col. Alexei “Moonfish” Mes, who “saved Ukrainians from lethal Russian missiles, sadly, at the price of his personal life.”
Moonfish and one other Ukrainian pilot, Andrii “Juice” Pilshchykov, made an early public go to to the U.S. in June 2022 to foyer lawmakers and media shops to ship F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, and each continued to function public faces of Ukraine’s battle to safe its airspace. Juice died in a crash in August 2023.
“Once I met Ukrainian pilots Juice and Moonfish I had a sickening feeling that they’d not survive the struggle,” former US Congressman Adam Kingzinger posted on “X,” previously generally known as Twitter. “They fought like hell for Ukraine and the F16.”
Earlier on Thursday, Russia carried out an enormous airstrike on Ukraine for the third time in 4 days, once more firing missiles and dozens of drones that have been largely intercepted, Ukraine’s air drive mentioned.
Russian forces fired 5 missiles and 74 Shahed drones at Ukrainian targets, the air drive mentioned in an announcement. Air defenses stopped two missiles and 60 drones, and one other 14 drones have been believed to have fallen earlier than reaching their goal, it added.
Authorities within the capital, kyiv, mentioned particles from destroyed drones fell in three districts of town, inflicting minor injury to civilian infrastructure however no accidents.
Russia’s relentless and disconcerting long-range assaults on civilian areas have been a function of the struggle because it invaded its neighbor in February 2022.
Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway — all NATO members — have pledged to supply Ukraine with greater than 60 of the planes, a determine that pales compared to Russia’s fleet of jet fighters, which is about ten occasions bigger.
Ukraine wants at the least 130 F-16 fighter jets to neutralize Russian air energy, Kiev officers say.
U.S. officers advised The Related Press late final month that the primary of a batch of F-16s promised by European international locations had arrived in Ukraine.
Navy analysts have mentioned their arrival is not going to be a game-changer within the struggle, given Russia’s huge air drive and complicated air defence methods. However Ukrainian officers welcomed them, seeing them as providing a chance to counter Russian air superiority.
Ukraine has to date used Soviet-era warplanes, and its pilots have undergone months of intensive coaching on F-16s within the West. The standard coaching interval is three years.
In August 2023, US President Joe Biden approved the cargo of US-made warplanes to Ukraine. This got here after months of strain from kyiv and an inside debate within the US administration, the place officers feared the transfer might enhance tensions with the Kremlin.
The F-16 can fly at twice the pace of sound and has a most vary of greater than 3,200 kilometers. It will possibly additionally fireplace fashionable weapons utilized by NATO international locations.
Ukrainian officers have just lately develop into extra vocal about their long-standing insistence that Western international locations supporting their struggle effort ought to take away restrictions on what Ukraine can assault inside Russia with the long-range weapons they’ve supplied it.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has renewed his requires Western allies to offer him freedom in deciding what to assault on Russian soil.
“All our companions ought to be extra energetic – far more energetic – within the combat towards Russian terrorism,” Zelenskyy mentioned Wednesday night. “We proceed to insist that their willpower now – to raise restrictions on long-range strikes towards Ukraine now – will assist us finish the struggle as quickly as doable in a manner that’s truthful for Ukraine and the world as an entire.”
The European Union’s prime diplomat on Thursday backed Zelenskyy’s push to get worldwide backers to finish his curbs.
Ukraine has deployed domestically produced drones to assault Russia.
The Russian navy mentioned Thursday it had thwarted an in a single day assault on Crimea. The Russian Protection Ministry mentioned its forces destroyed three Ukrainian drones concentrating on the Black Sea peninsula that Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
Russia-installed Sevastopol governor Mikhail Razvozhayev added that 4 Ukrainian aerial drones and three Ukrainian maritime drones have been destroyed “at a major distance” from the peninsula’s coast.
In the meantime, Ukraine’s Military Basic Employees on Thursday acknowledged Ukraine’s involvement on this week’s assaults on oil depots deep inside Russia, the place fires broke out.
The assaults within the Rostov and Kirov areas have been a part of Ukraine’s effort to disrupt the logistical infrastructure that helps Russia’s struggle machine.
