Ukraine’s Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) has lost its first F-16 fighter jet due to pilot error, a US official told The Wall Street Journal.
According to preliminary data, the plane was not shot down by the Russian army, despite the fact that the incident occurred during a large-scale Russian attack. The cause of the crash was pilot error.
As RBC specifies, Ukraine has not reported the crash of the plane or the death of the pilot. Nevertheless, the head of Lutsk city council Ihor Polishchuk published a post that spoke about the death of Oleksii Mes. He was the deputy commander of the 114th tactical aviation brigade and was training on the F-16. At the moment, the said post has been deleted.
According to The Times, Ukraine has been promised 79 fighter jets, and six of them were given to Kyiv by the Netherlands. However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy insists on increasing their number to 120–130 – “to successfully confront Russia in the air.”
AFU Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyy said the F-16s would be deployed “40 kilometers or more” from the front line so that they would not be shot down. According to him, the fighters will effectively destroy Russian cruise missiles and strike ground targets.
On August 1, it became known that the F-16s that arrived in Ukraine have already made their first combat sorties – the planes were used as air defense assets.
