That is the primary crash since F-16s started arriving in Ukraine late final month.
Ukraine introduced that one of many few F-16 fighter jets supplied by Western allies to struggle the Russian invasion crashed whereas repelling an enormous Russian air assault.
The pilot was killed within the incident, which passed off on Monday after Russia launched greater than 200 missiles and drones in one of many largest bombing campaigns of its warfare.
That is the primary time Ukraine has reported the destruction of an F-16, and comes simply weeks after Kiev started receiving the plane.
At the very least six plane are believed to have been delivered.
“F-16 fighter jets of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in addition to anti-aircraft missile items had been used to repel missile assaults by the Russian Federation on Ukrainian territory,” the Ukrainian military mentioned.
It added that communications with the F-16 had been misplaced because the plane approached its subsequent goal.
“It was later confirmed that the airplane crashed and the pilot died,” the navy mentioned.
The pilots weren’t named within the assertion, however a Ukrainian air pressure unit mentioned one of many pilots, Oleksiy Mes, died in a crash on Monday.
“On August 26, Oleksey destroyed three cruise missiles and an assault drone whereas repelling large-scale Russian missiles and air strikes,” the Ukrainian Western Air Drive Command mentioned.
“Olexi saved Ukrainians from lethal Russian missiles. Sadly, he paid along with his personal life.
Investigation is ongoing
Metz, whose name signal is “Moonfish,” traveled to the US as a part of Ukraine’s efforts to influence the US and different NATO allies to ship F-16s.
After I met Ukrainian pilots Juice (left) and Moonfish (proper), I had a sick feeling that they would not survive the warfare unscathed. Juice died in August 2023 and Moonfish died on Monday. They fought tooth and nail for Ukraine and F16. Nickel vs Straw Man. Ukraine is superb pic.twitter.com/uErBmyQGBa
— Adam Kinzinger (Slava Ukraine) 🇺🇸🇺🇦🇮🇱 (@AdamKinzinger) August 29, 2024
America permitted the plan in 2023, and the primary plane arrived in Kiev in late July. Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway have pledged to supply Ukraine with greater than 60 F-16s. Nonetheless, Russia’s jet fleet is about ten instances bigger.
Ukraine’s Protection Ministry has launched an investigation into Monday’s crash.
A U.S. protection official informed Reuters that the crash didn’t look like brought on by a Russian fireplace and that pilot error and mechanical failure had been being investigated as attainable causes.
Russia has continued its aerial bombardment of Ukraine since Monday’s assault.
On Thursday, the Ukrainian Air Drive mentioned its air protection programs intercepted two of the 5 Russian missiles launched and 60 of the 74 Shahd drones. Fourteen different drones are mentioned to have crashed earlier than reaching their targets.
Authorities within the capital Kiev mentioned particles from the destroyed drone landed in three areas of the town however precipitated no casualties.
Ukraine says it wants not less than 130 F-16s to suppress Russian air energy.
The F-16 can fly at speeds as much as twice the velocity of sound and has a most vary of three,200 kilometers (greater than 2,000 miles). They’ll additionally fireplace fashionable weapons utilized by NATO international locations.
