Ukraine says certainly one of its Western-donated F-16 warplanes has crashed

KYIV, Ukraine — One of many handful of F-16 warplanes that Ukraine has obtained from its Western companions to assist struggle Russia’s invasion has crashed, Ukraine’s Military Basic Employees stated Thursday. The pilot died.

The fighter jet went down on Monday, when Russia launched a significant missile and drone barrage at Ukraine, a navy assertion posted on Fb stated. 4 of these Russian missiles have been shot down by F-16s, the assertion stated.

The crash was the primary reported lack of an F-16 in Ukraine, the place they arrived on the finish of final month. At the least six of the warplanes are believed to have been delivered.

The Protection Ministry has opened an investigation into the crash.

The Ukrainian air pressure in a Fb submit recognized the pilot as Col. Alexei “Moonfish” Mes, who “saved Ukrainians from lethal Russian missiles, sadly, at the price of your personal life.”

Moonfish and a fellow Ukrainian pilot, Andrii “Juice” Pilshchykov, made an early, public go to to the U.S. in June 2022 to press lawmakers and media to ship Ukraine F-16 fighter jets they usually each continued to function public faces for Ukraine’s battle to safe its airspace. Juice was killed in an August 2023 accident.

“When I met with Ukraine pilots Juice and Moonfish I had a sick feeling they wouldn’t make it through the war,” former U.S. congressman Adam Kingzinger posted on “X”, previously often called Twitter. “They fought like hell for Ukraine, and the F16.”

Earlier Thursday, Russia conducted a heavy aerial attack on Ukraine for the third time in four days, again launching missiles and scores of drones that mostly were intercepted, Ukraine’s air force said.

Russian forces fired five missiles and 74 Shahed drones at Ukrainian targets, an air force statement said. Air defenses stopped two missiles and 60 drones, and 14 other drones presumably fell before reaching their target, it said.

Authorities within the capital, Kyiv, stated particles of destroyed drones fell in three districts of town, inflicting minor injury to civilian infrastructure however no accidents.

Russia’s relentless and unnerving long-range strikes on civilian areas have been a function of the conflict because it invaded its neighbor in February 2022.

Belgium, Denmark the Netherlands and Norway — all NATO members — have dedicated to offering Ukraine with greater than 60 of the planes. That quantity is dwarfed by the Russian jet fighter fleet, which is round 10 instances bigger.

Ukraine wants no less than 130 F-16 fighter jets to neutralize Russian air energy, Kyiv officers say.

U.S. officers advised The Related Press on the finish of final month that the primary of a batch of F-16s promised by European international locations had arrived in Ukraine.

Army analysts have stated their arrival received’t be a game-changer within the conflict, given Russia’s large air pressure and complex air protection programs. However Ukrainian officers welcomed them as providing a chance to hit again at Russia’s air superiority.

Ukraine has till now been utilizing Soviet-era warplanes, and its pilots underwent intense coaching on the F-16s within the West for months. The same old coaching interval is three years.

U.S. President Joe Biden granted authorization in August 2023 for the U.S.-built warplanes to be despatched to Ukraine. That got here after months of stress from Kyiv and inside debate within the U.S. administration the place officers feared the transfer might escalate tensions with the Kremlin.

The F-16s can fly as much as twice the pace of sound and have a most vary of greater than 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers). They’ll additionally hearth fashionable weapons utilized by NATO international locations.

Ukrainian officers have just lately grow to be extra vocal of their long-standing insistence that Western international locations supporting their conflict effort ought to scrap restrictions on what Ukraine is allowed to focus on inside Russia with long-range weapons they’ve offered.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy renewed his pleas for Western allies to untie his fingers in deciding what to strike on Russian soil.

“All our partners should be more active — much more active — in countering Russian terror,” Zelenskyy stated late Wednesday. “We continue to insist that their determination now — lifting the restrictions on long-range strikes for Ukraine now — will help us to end the war as soon as possible in a fair way for Ukraine and the world as a whole.”

The European Union’s prime diplomat on Thursday backed Zelenskyy’s push for worldwide backers to finish their limits.

Ukraine has deployed domestically produced drones to strike Russia.

The Russian navy stated Thursday it had thwarted an in a single day assault on Crimea. The Russian Protection Ministry stated its forces destroyed three Ukrainian sea drones aimed on the Black Sea peninsula that Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

The Russia-installed governor of Sevastopol Mikhail Razvozhayev added that 4 Ukrainian aerial drones and three sea drones have been destroyed “at a significant distance” from the peninsula’s shore.

Within the meantime, Ukraine’s Military Basic Employees acknowledged Thursday Ukraine’s involvement in strikes this week on oil depots deep inside Russia, the place blazes broke out.

The assaults within the Rostov and Kirov areas have been a part of Ukraine’s effort to disrupt logistical infrastructure supporting Russia’s conflict machine.